Endopelvic Approach for Iliac Crest Bone Harvesting

BACKGROUND: The anterior approach to lumbar spine surgery has grown in popularity in the past few years; spinal fusion of the last 2 lumbar levels is often required. Although alternatives to bone grafting are available, including recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein 2 or bone substitutes, only cancellous autologous bone has all the required factors for bone growth. To avoid the use of bone substitutes, remote iliac crest bone harvesting remains the gold standard. However, this technique may lead to some unfavorable outcomes. CASE DESCRIPTION: The patient was a 46-year-old man with severe back and left leg pain. Magnetic resonance imaging showed an inflammatory discopathy of L5-S1 associated with a left posterior lateral herniated disc. Conservative treatment failed, and surgical treatment of the lumbar disk disease and the herniated disc was scheduled. A novel iliac crest bone harvesting method was performed during the retroperitoneal approach to the anterior lumbar interbody fusion. The patient's postoperative course was uneventful. There were no adverse outcomes related to the bone donor site. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first in vivo report of endopelvic iliac crest bone harvesting. This technique allows bone graft harvesting to be performed with the same retroperitoneal approach used for anterior lumbar interbody fusion. It avoids many common complications associated with the remote approach to the iliac crest.