Regarding the decision-making process for patients with spondylolisthesis
Excerpt taken from the Spine Minds discussion: Grade I Degenerative Spondylolisthesis: To Fuse or Not to Fuse? (Part 1)
Watch the video:
http://spineminds.com/2013/05/16/decision-makers/
It’s a great topic, Do You Fuse Spondylolisthesis or Not?
If the minimally invasive fusion takes an hour and it works, that’s a far different fusion than one that takes four hours and is open, and far different if the patient is obese and diabetic, than if the patient is slender, 40 years-old, healthy and a non-smoker.
As practitioners in the orthopedic spine field, we all recognize that while we may want to and are expected to abide by the current best evidence on decision-making for the spondylolisthesis patient group, we have just defined how you can’t do that for the individual patient.