%0 Journal Article %T Surgical management of low grade isthmic spondylolisthesis; a randomized controlled study of the surgical fixation with and without reduction %A Ziad M Audat %A Fayeq T Darwish %A Moh'd M Al Barbarawi %A Moatasem M Obaidat %A Walid H Haddad %A Khaldoon M Bashaireh %A Ihsan A Al-Aboosy %J Scoliosis %D 2011 %I BioMed Central %R 10.1186/1748-7161-6-14 %X A randomized and double blinded study consisted of 41 patients aged 36-69 years (18 females and 28 males) treated for symptomatic spondylolisthesis between December,2006 and December, 2009. All patients were randomly distributed into two groups I and II. Twenty patients were in Group I; they underwent reduction of the slipped vertebrae by using Reduction-Screw Technique and posterior lumbar interbody fixation (PLIF). Group II consisted of twenty one patients who underwent only surgical fixation (PLIF) without reduction. All patients in this study had same pre and post operative management.only one case had broken rod in group I that required revision. Superficial wound infection was experienced in two patients and one patient, from group II, developed wound hematoma. The outcome in both groups was variable on the short term but was almost the same on the long term follow up.surgical management of symptomatic low grade spondylolisthesis should include neural decompression and surgical fixation. Reduction of slipped vertebral bodies is unnecessary as the ultimate outcome will be likely similar.Lumbar isthmic spondylolisthesis in adults is a frequent pathology that is encountered by spinal surgeon. It affects 5% of populations in the USA [1]. Clinical presentation is usually variable and ranging from mild to severe symptoms and disability which are related to the neural compression. The symptoms are typically related to the biomechanical spinal instability which leads to disc degeneration and lumber canal stenosis that ends with encroachment of nerve roots and thecal sac at the slide level [2-7].Medical treatment is usually the first line on management. Surgical approaches are preserved to cases with failure of conservative treatment or those with overt neurological deficits. However, Various surgical techniques have been advocated to deal with symptomatic isthmic spondylolisthesis; the main perception of these surgical techniques focused on spinal fixation and neural %K spondylolisthesis %K surgical fixation %K reduction %K outcome %K neural decompression %K ODI %U http://www.scoliosisjournal.com/content/6/1/14