Lumbar Decompression and Interbody Fusion Improves Gait Performance, Pain, and Psychosocial Factors of Patients With Degenerative Lumbar Spondylolisthesis.

Surgical treatment of DLS resulted in a faster, more efficient gait in addition to significant reductions in pain, disability, and psychological fear associated with pain and motion. These beneficial changes that we identified early in the postoperative period indicate that patients return to the quality of life they seek early on. Clinical gait analysis provides objective, quantifiable measures of gait parameters that provide new insight into both the preoperative disability associated with DLS and into the early postoperative function of patients during their rehabilitation.