title: Single incision percutaneous pedicle screw fixation for transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Percutaneous pedicle screw fixation (PPSF) offers some of the advantages of minimally invasive surgery. However, an additional skin incision is necessary in order to gain these advantages. The author recently performed a modified PPSF through a single skin incision and it yielded good results. Here, we report the single incision percutaneous pedicle screw fixation (SIPPSF).
  
  
  METHODS
  The medical records of 51 patients who underwent single segment transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) with pedicle screw fixation (PSF) between December 2009 and December 2011 were reviewed. The patients were divided into 3 groups according to the PSF technique used; conventional group (Group C), SIPPSF (Group S) and PPSF through multiple skin incisions (Group M). Operation time, estimated blood loss (EBL) and pain intensity before and after the operation using a numeric rating scale (NRS) were evaluated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The number of patients in Group S, Group C and Group M was 25, 17 and 9, respectively. The NRS demonstrated a reduction in pain intensity in all the patients, and there were no differences in NRS scoring between the three groups. Group S showed a reduction in the EBL compared to Group C (p=0.001) and a reduction in the operation time compared to Group M(p=0.003).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The author supposes that the type of skin incision does not correlate significantly with the clinical results of TLIF with PPSF. However, it can be considered that SIPPSF offers the advantage of avoiding an additional paramedian skin incision.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Sung Hoon
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Chuncheon Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University College of Medicine, Chuncheon, Korea.
authors.forename: Suk-Hyung
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Chuncheon Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University College of Medicine, Chuncheon, Korea.
authors.forename: Yong-Jun
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Tack Geun
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Cho
keywords: Minimally invasive; Percutaneous pedicle screw; Transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion