We reviewed the cases of fifty patients who underwent anterior
lumbar-spine fusion with autogenous fibular and iliac-bone grafts and were
followed for two to fifteen years. Their diagnoses were instability of the
spine, degenerative disc disease, pseudarthrosis, and spondylolisthesis.
Fifty-six per cent had union and 44 per cent, non-union. Those who had
iliac grafts healed in an average of 2.5 years and those who had fibular
grafts, in 5.2 years. The clinical result was successful in twenty-six
patients (52 per cent) and unsuccessful in twenty-four patients (48 per
cent). Paradoxically, about one-half of the patients with clinical
successes had a non-union and one-half of the failures had union.
Retrograde ejaculation (sterility) did not develop in any of the men, and a
survey of world authorities on anterior spine fusion revealed only sixteen
patients with the sequela of retrograde ejaculation. The incidence of that
complication has been exaggerated.