Unique Case of Anterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion (ALIF L5-S1) of A Patient with Excessive Overweight and Medical Contraindications for Posterior Lumbar Surgery

Abstract

Summary: We present a clinical case - a patient with long-lasting axial lumbar pain, moderate neurological deficit - L5 radiculopathy left with partial peroneal paresis and significantly reduced quality of life. In the last 10 years the patient has been treated conservatively and operated several times (always posterior technique as all anesthetics after application were followed by cardiac arrest and clinical death due to the patient's condition on the surgical table and his biological parameters) without real improvement in symptoms. After the completion of the diagnostic process, degenerative disc disease with foraminal stenosis L5-S1 was diagnosed. We performed anterior lumbar fusion with excellent postoperative results - complete reduction of the pain syndrome and the elimination of neurological symptoms. ALIF is an advanced surgical solution to the problem, intervention with minimal invasiveness, short recovery period and proven effectiveness, but with extremely high complexity and risk in patients with such parameters [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6].