Lumbar degenerative spondylolisthesis clinical features

Spondylolisthesis is one of the reasons of low back pain and leg pain with most often compression of L4, L5, and S1 nerve roots 1).

The nerve root compression within the lumbar intervertebral foramen is the main problem in patients with spondylolisthesis who has radicular signs. Especially in patients who have degenerative spondylolisthesis or low-grade dysplastic type spondylolisthesis, foraminal stenosis gets worse in time due to disruption of the disc. The volume of the foraminal space starts to decrease when sliding of vertebra begins, and this decrease gets worse in time with destruction of the disc 2) 3).

1)
Oh CH, Ji GY, Jeon JK, Lee J, Yoon SH, Hyun DK. Slip reduction rate between minimal ınvasive and conventional unilateral transforaminal ınterbody fusion in patients with low-grade ısthmic spondylolisthesis. Korean J Spine. 2013;10:232–236.
2)
Arts MP, Verstegen MJ, Brand R, Koes BW, van den Akker ME, Peul WC. Cost-effectiveness of decompression according to Gill versus instrumented spondylodesis in the treatment of sciatica due to low grade spondylolytic spondylolisthesis: a pro spective randomised controlled trial [NTR1300] BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2008;9:128.
3)
Pawar AY, Hughes AP, Sama AA, Girardi FP, Lebl DR, Cammisa FP. A comparative study of lateral lumbar ınterbody fusion and posterior lumbar ınterbody fusion in degenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis. Asian Spine J. 2015;9:668–674