Navigated simultaneous lateral minimally invasive tubular and posterior mini-open access for removal and revision of triangular sacroiliac joint implants: Technical note.

BACKGROUND: Sacroiliac joint (SIJ) fusion, to treat back pain caused by SIJ dysfunction, can employ open or minimally invasive surgery (MIS) techniques and either cylindrical (screw-shaped) or triangular (wedge-shaped) implants. Fusion nonunion sometimes explains recurrent SIJ pain following fusion and occasionally requires hardware revision. MIS revision minimizes patient pain, infection, and disability, but due to the triangular implant size and form factor, implant removal can present challenges for MIS access during the explantation and achieving good bony purchase for re-instrumentation. Here, we report a prone single-position lateral MIS/posterior mini-open procedure for triangular-implant SIJ fusion revision.

METHODS: The patient is a 72-year-old female who underwent right SIJ fusion for lower back and leg pain sustained after a fall two years prior but experienced recurrent pain over the subsequent two years, with imaging findings of right SIJ peri-hardware lucencies and diagnostic injections confirming persistent right-sided sacroiliitis.

RESULTS: The patient underwent hardware removal using the lateral MIS incision with table-mounted tubular access and image-guided navigation to maintain exposure, plus simultaneous re-instrumentation using a navigated S2-ilioalar screw and iliac bolt construct with connecting rod through the posterior mini-open incision made for the navigation reference frame spinous process clamp.

CONCLUSION: The use of navigation and MIS access can significantly decrease the complexity of lateral hardware removal, and mini-open navigated screw-and-rod constructs offer re-instrumentation options accessible to surgeons unfamiliar with specialized posterior SIJ systems.