Midline lumbar fusion with cortical bone trajectory screw.

A novel cortical bone trajectory (CBT) screw technique provides an alternative fixation technique for lumbar spine. Trajectory of CBT screw creates a caudo-cephalad path in sagittal plane and a medio-lateral path in axial plane, and engages cortical bone in the pedicle. The theoretical advantage is that it provides enhanced screw grip and interface strength. Midline lumbar fusion (MIDLF) is composed of posterior midline approach, microsurgical laminectomy, and CBT screw fixation. We adopted the MIDLF technique for lumbar spondylolisthesis. Advantages of this technique include that decompression and fusion are available in the same field, and it minimizes approach-related damages. To determine whether MIDLF with CBT screw is as effective as traditional approach and it is minimum invasive technique, we studied the clinical and radiological outcomes of MIDLF. Our results indicate that MIDLF is effective and minimum invasive technique. Evidence of effectiveness of MIDLF is that patients had good recovery score, and that CBT screw technique was safety in clinical and stable in radiological. MIDLF with CBT screw provides the surgeon with additional options for fixation. This technique is most likely to be useful for treating lumbar spondylolisthesis in combination with midline decompression and insertion of an interbody graft, such as the transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion or posterior lumbar interbody fusion techniques.