Recovery of Bilateral Hip Flexion Weakness Following Extreme Lateral Interbody Fusion Due to Postoperative Pain – A prospective Study

1. Abstract
1.1. Background Context
Extreme lateral interbody fusion (XLIF) is a relatively recent minimally invasive fusion technique of the lumbar spine. A point of criticism is the risk of postoperative weakness of the psoas ascribed to neural injury. We postulate that the resulting hip flexion weakness is merely a temporary phenomenon due to postoperative pain.