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Originally Posted by teteri66  I think I've figured out why the surgeon is doing both TLIF and PLIF....I still don't know why he isn't just doing a TLIF for both segments, but then it doesn't matter what I think. 
The L4-L5 segment carries the majority of the spine's movement...and the TLiF puts bone graft on the anterior and posterior sides...so technically it is a stronger start to fusion than the posterior approach alone. |
He's not doing a TLIF........he's doing an XLIF extreme lateral interbody fusion on L4-L5
and a PLIF posterior lumbar interbody fusion on L5-S1
I just don't understand why he's not just using the PLIF to access all areas :/