ABSTRACT
Fusion surgery is the current state of the art surgical treatment for most of the acquired or iatrogenic spine instabilities/disorders. The procedure restores spinal alignment, and reduces pain. With the recent advances in the fusion techniques, successful fusion rates have approached very high, but have failed to reflect a comparable increase in the successful clinical outcome. The clinical outcomes after fusion appear to be quite inconsistent; a systematic review of mainly retrospective case series suggest that satisfactory clinical outcomes may range from just 16% to as high as 95%, with an average of around 68% (2). In addition, an apprehension of adjacent segment disease in the long-term follow-up has always been a concern.
