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Long-term results of SI joint fusion for pelvic girdle pain predictable with 1 year outcomes

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AMSTERDAM — Among 50 patients who underwent sacroiliac joint fusions for severe pelvic girdle pain between 1977 and 1998, Norwegian researchers found the patients’ 1-year follow-up results were a good predictor of their results 2 decades later.

The results of their study showed that sacroiliac (SI) joint fusions for this indication, all of which were transiliac fusions, were successful in 48% of patients at the 1-year follow-up. Those patients had significantly higher Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) scores compared to the patients in the study whose SI joint fusions were unsuccessful and had mean ODI scores of 27.

Mean ODI scores at the 1-year follow-up were 37 points for the 12 patients with a partially successful outcome and 43 points for the 14 patients whose fusions were unsuccessful, which was defined in the study design as pain following treatment that was the same as or worse than it was preoperatively, according to the researchers.

Thomas J. Kibsgård

“Twenty-three years after SI joint fusion, the patients were moderately disabled and had moderate pain,” Thomas J. Kibsgård, MD, of Oslo University Hospital, in Oslo, Norway, said in his presentation at SpineWeek 2012, here. “One-year outcomes seem to predict long-term outcomes, but the results did not differ from a non-matched control group.”

Patients with successful outcomes at 1 year maintained significantly better pain and function scores than those with unsuccessful SI joint fusions, according to the abstract. At long-term follow-up, SI joint fusion patients as a whole had a mean ODI score of 37 points and a mean Visual Analog Scale score of 54 points, however, outcomes in patients who underwent the surgery did not differ from those in the control group at 23 years, Kibsgård said.

Reference:

Kibsgård TJ, Røise O, Stuge B, Sudmann E. Pelvic joint fusions in patients with chronic pelvic girdle pain: a 23-year follow-up. Paper #85. Presented at SpineWeek 2012. May 28-June 1. Amsterdam.

Disclosure: The authors received grants from the Norweigan Foundation for Health and Rehabilitation and Rehabilitation and Sophies Minde Ortopedie AS to conduct this study.