ABSTRACT

Introduction:

Spinal fusion ofwhich the whole properties are not known completely, is one of the most applied procedure of the spinal surgery. The role of decortication is still not clear.

Material And Method:

Using 30 guinea pigs, in-vivo experimental models were created in order to evaluate decortication in spinal fusion. Spine exposure was made through right side subperiosteal dissection between L2 and L6 in all animals. Left side of spine was used as the control group. Animals were divided into 3 groups. Decortication and autografting were performed in Group 1; decortication, instrumentation and autografting in 2; instrumentation and autografting without decortication in 3.

Results:

Animals were sacrified during the postoperative 6th week. The fusion mass was evaluated by means of macroscopic evaluation, manual stress test, radiological and microscopicevaluation methods. Based on segmentary evaluations, 80% of fusion for Group 1, 95% for 2, and 92.5% for 3 were obtained. These results statistically are meaningful by means of Kruskal- Wallis nonparametric ANOVA test (p

Conclusion:

Regarding these results, decortication would be the basic step for spinal fusion if spinal instrumentationn is not to be considered. However, in case of a stable instrumentation, no positive impact of decortication is observed for the formatian of spinal fusion for this animal model.