Failure of an expandable lumbar interbody spacer - a critical analysis of secondary collapse, pseudoarthrosis and revision rates after thoracolumbar fusion

• Published in: European spine journal 2024-10
• Main Authors: Hejrati, Nader, Martens, Benjamin, Jost, Bernhard, Bozinov, Oliver, Stienen, Martin N
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0940-6719; 1432-0932; 1432-0932
• DOI: 10.1007/s00586-024-08539-5

To report on the failure rates of an expandable interbody spacer, used for spinal instrumented transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) or posterior thoracolumbar interbody fusion (PLIF). In this retrospective, single-center observational cohort study we reviewed consecutive PLIF/TLIF patients using the Catalyft™ PL and PL40 expandable titanium interbody implant (Medtronic, Minneapolis (USA)) between 07/2022 and 11/2023. We recorded patient demographics, surgical parameters, adverse events, radiological parameters and clinical outcomes according to the MacNab criteria. We identified 53 patients (mean age 68.6 ± 11.5 years; 49.1% female; mean BMI 25.7 ± 4.4 kg/m ), in which 92 Catalyft™ spacers were implanted, mostly at L4/5 (n = 35; 38.0%) and L5/S1 (n = 31; 33.7%) for degenerative (n = 44; 83.0%), deformity (n = 7; 13.2%) or other indications (n = 2; 3.8%). We noticed secondary collapse of 20 (21.7%) spacers in 11 patients (20.7%) occurring after a mean time of 4.0 ± 4.1 months postoperatively. Age