ABSTRACT
Spine fusions have been performed worldwide for a variety of reasons mainly correlated to pathological spine disorders and vertebral instability. The number of procedures increases dramatically and it has been estimated that nearly one million are performed each year (1). A recent report in 2001 (2) revealed that in the United States alone, approximately 360,000 patients underwent certain types of spinal arthrodesis. Among all these, indications that refer to spine arthrodesis are mostly low back pain, spondylosis and spondylolisthesis, rheumatoid instabilities, postdiscectomy, unstable fractures, trauma, and other lesions. Each of the above spine abnormalities presents different challenges to surgeons in achieving solid constructs to immobilize the disturbed motion segments.
