Comparison of patients for whom indirect decompression was successful vs those who underwent subsequent reoperation for direct decompression
| Variable | Indirect Success (n = 545) | Failed Indirect (n = 23) | P Value |
| Mean age (years) | 49.8 | 56.6 | <0.025 |
| Mean preop ODI | 43.8 | 46.5 | >0.50 |
| Mean preop VAS back pain | 6.3 | 6.4 | >0.50 |
| Mean preop VAS leg pain | 4.9 | 5.6 | >0.30 |
| N (%) | N (%) | ||
| Gender | >0.05 | ||
| Female | 288 (95.7%) | 13 (4.3%) | |
| Male | 257 (96.3%) | 10 (3.7%) | |
| Symptoms | >0.05 | ||
| Radiculopathy | 489 (96.3%) | 19 (3.7%) | |
| Neurogenic claudication | 13 (100.0%) | 0 (0.0%) | |
| Both | 43 (91.4%) | 4 (8.5%) | |
| Level operated | > 0.05 | ||
| L2-3 | 1 (100.0%) | 0 (0.0%) | |
| L3-4 | 5 (100.0%) | 0 (0.0%) | |
| L4-5 | 139 (97.2%) | 4 (2.8%) | |
| L5-S1 | 400 (95.6%) | 19 (4.4%) | |
| ODI Section 7a | >0.05 | ||
| Score 0–2 | 377 (95.9%) | 16 (4.1%) | |
| Score 3–5 | 143 (95.3%) | 7 (4.7%) | |
| Fusion technique | >0.05 | ||
| Stand-alone ALIF | 235 (95.1%) | 12 (4.9%) | |
| ALIF + PI | 310 (96.7%) | 11 (3.4%) |
aPreoperative ODI Section 7 response not available for 2 patients.
ALIF, anterior lumbar interbody fusion; ODI, Oswestry Disability Index; PI, posterior instrumentation; VAS, visual analog scale.