Clinical and radiographic outcomes of oblique lumbar interbody fusion with anterolateral screw and rod instrumentation in osteopenia patients: a retrospective study

PURPOSE: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the clinical and radiographic outcomes of oblique lumbar interbody fusion (OLIF) to perform in L4/5 degenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis (DLS) patients who diagnosed with osteopenia. METHODS: From December 2018 to 2021 March, 94 patients were diagnosed with degenerative spondylolisthesis underwent OLIF and divided into two groups with different bone mineral density. Anterolateral screw and rod instrumentation was applied in two groups. The primary outcomes were VAS, JOA and ODI. The secondary outcomes included disc height (DH), cross-sectional height of the intervertebral foramina (CSH), cross-sectional area of the dural sac (CSA), lumbar lordorsis (LL), pelvic titlt (PT), pelvic incidence (PI) and sacrum slop (SS). RESULTS: All patients finished at least 1 years follow-up with 21.05 ± 4.42 months in the group A and 21.09 ± 4.28 months in the group B. The clinical symptoms were evaluated by VAS, JOA and ODI and 94 patients showed good outcomes at final follow-up (P < 0.05), with significant increases in DH, CSH and CSA. In group A, DH increased from 8.54 ± 2.48 to 11.11 ± 2.63 mm, while increased from 8.60 ± 2.29 to 11.23 ± 1.88 were recorded in group B. No statistical difference was found in DH between the two groups (P > 0.05). The cage subsidence was 1.14 ± 0.83 mm in group A and 0.87 ± 1.05 mm in group B (P > 0.05). There was no significant difference in the adjusted parameters of spino-pelvic between two groups (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Oblique lumbar interbody fusion with anterolateral screw and rod instrumentation is feasible to be performed in osteopenia patients who diagnosed with degenerative spondylolisthesis. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12891-023-06873-1.