Real-world outcomes of minimally invasive posterior thoracic and lumbar spine fusion surgery versus open surgery in the Finnish Spine Registry
Jukka Huttunen, Pietari Kinnunen, Nikolai Klimko, Ville Leinonen, Corinne Schut, Ankita Kambli, George Wright, Saara Hiltunen, Suvi Pakarinen, Suzanne Battaglia, Cindy Tong, Annalisa Michielli, Marike Hempel · 2026
Read Real-world outcomes of minimally invasive posterior thoracic and lumbar spine fusion surgery versus open surgery in the Finnish Spine Registry by Jukka Huttunen, Pietari Kinnunen, Nikolai Klimko, Ville Leinonen, Corinne Schut, Ankita Kambli, George Wright, Saara Hiltunen, Suvi Pakarinen, Suzanne Battaglia, Cindy Tong, Annalisa Michielli, Marike Hempel (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13263567.txt.
Description
Jukka Huttunen and a large team compared in 2026 minimally invasive and open posterior spine fusion across Finland using national registry data. Their records came from two university hospitals and linked insurance and patient-reported sources. After matching, the study held 522 patients, with 139 in the keyhole group and 383 in the open group.
Hospital stay, the main outcome, showed no real difference between the approaches once imbalances were adjusted. Keyhole patients lost less blood and spent less time in the operating room skin-to-skin. Disability and quality-of-life scores moved in favorable directions for both groups out to two years. Safety events were too few to judge firmly, which the authors state plainly. They read the resource profile as supportive of the minimally invasive route as fusion volumes grow.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Jukka Huttunen, Pietari Kinnunen, Nikolai Klimko, Ville Leinonen, Corinne Schut, Ankita Kambli, George Wright, Saara Hiltunen, Suvi Pakarinen, Suzanne Battaglia, Cindy Tong, Annalisa Michielli, Marike Hempel |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 57 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |