• Julio Plata-Bello, Héctor Roldan, Liberto Brage, Aída Rahy, and Víctor Garcia-Marin.
• Department of Neurosurgery, Hospital Universitario de Canarias, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain. Electronic address: jplata5@hotmail.com.
• World Neurosurg. 2016 Jul 1; 91: 671.e13-6.

ObjectiveTo describe a rare complication of the extreme lateral interbody fusion technique.BackgroundLateral lumbar interbody fusion (LLIF) is a minimally invasive technique that has achieved great reputation among spine surgeons because of its advantages over other procedures. However, complication rates of this technique have not been definitively assessed so far.Case ReportA 44-year-old male smoker, presenting with pseudoarthrosis of a previous posterior stabilization, underwent an LLIF procedure. The operation was uneventful, and an appropriate functional recovery was achieved by 2 months after surgery. Nevertheless, 5 months after surgery, the patient developed pulmonary tuberculosis and a mass in the proximity of the LLIF incision appeared. This mass was finally diagnosed as abdominal pseudohernia and had to be surgically repaired.ConclusionsAbdominal pseudohernia is a rare complication of LLIF procedures. The interest of the present case is 3-fold: 1) it is the first delayed case of abdominal pseudohernia after an LLIF procedure; 2) it is the first case described in a young patient in whom risk factors have been identified and discussed; and 3) it is the first case that did not resolve spontaneously and required surgical repair. This exceptional complication must be borne in the mind of the spine surgeon when using the LLIF technique, and special precautions, such as laxatives or respiratory physiotherapy, apart from meticulous atraumatic dissection and closure of the abdominal wall and specific intraoperative monitoring, should be taken in high-risk patients to prevent it.Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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