Outcomes in Adult Scoliosis Patients Who Undergo Spinal Fusion Stopping at L5 Compared with Extension to the Sacrum
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Study Design Systematic review. Study Rationale Adult scoliosis is a common disorder that is associated with significantly higher pain, functional impairment, and effect on quality of life than those without scoliosis. Surgical spinal fusion has led to quantifiable improvement in patient's quality of life. However, for patients undergoing long lumbar fusion, the decision to stop the fusion at L5 or to extend to S1, particularly if the L5-S1 disc is healthy, remains controversial. Objective The aim of the study is to evaluate if fusion stopping at L5 increases the comparative rates of revision, correction loss, and/or poor functional outcomes compared with extension to the sacrum in adult scoliosis patients who require spinal fusion surgery. Materials and Methods A systematic review of the literature was performed using PubMed, the National Guideline Clearinghouse Database and bibliographies of key articles that evaluated adult scoliosis patients who required spinal fusion surgery and compared outcomes for fusions to the sacrum versus stopping at L5. Articles were included on the basis of predetermined criteria and were appraised using a predefined quality-rating scheme. Results From 111 citations, 26 articles underwent full-text review, and 3 retrospective cohort studies met all inclusion and exclusion criteria. Revision rates in subjects who underwent spinal fusion to L5 (20.8-23.5%) were lower in two studies compared with those with fusion extending to the sacrum (19.0-58.3%). Studies that assessed deformity correction used different measures, making comparison across studies difficult. No significant differences were found in patient-reported functional outcomes across two studies that used different measures. Conclusion The limited data available suggest that differences in revision rates did not consistently reach statistical significance across studies that compared spinal fusion to L5 versus extension to sacrum in adult scoliosis patients.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.009 | 0.035 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.011 | 0.007 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.017 | 0.016 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.003 | 0.002 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.004 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".