Table 1. Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria.
| Study components | Inclusion | Exclusion |
|---|---|---|
| Participants | Adults | Children (age ≤18 years) |
| Pathology | A pathology of spondylolisthesis, spondylosis (degenerative disease) | A pathology of deformity, trauma, infection, inflammatory disease, or tumor |
| Interventions | Posterior lumbar/lumbosacral spinal fusion (including transforaminal/posterior lumbar interbody fusion and posterolateral fusion) utilizing percutaneous pedicle screw fixation | Decompression only without fusion |
| Fusions extended to cervical and thoracic spine | ||
| Stand-alone anterior or posterior fusion | ||
| Presacral (axial) anterior fusion | ||
| Posterior instrumentation with facet screws or interspinous process devices | ||
| Unilateral instrumentation | ||
| Robot-assisted instrumentation | ||
| Mini-open instrumentation* | ||
| Mixed instrumentation | ||
| Comparator | Conventional open pedicle screw instrumented fusion | |
| Study outcomes | Clinical outcomes for pain and function, fusion rate, subsequent surgery, complications, and perioperative surgical data | Other radiographic measures (excluding fusion): alignment, range of motion, etc. |
| Nonclinical outcomes | ||
| Study design | Randomized controlled trials | Retrospective cohort studies |
| Controlled clinical trials | Case-control studies | |
| Prospective cohort studies | Case series | |
| Case reports | ||
| Nonclinical studies | ||
| Publication | Studies published in English in peer-reviewed journals | Abstracts, editorials, letters |
| Duplicate publications of the same study that do not report on different outcomes | ||
| Single-center reports from multicenter trials | ||
| Studies reporting on the technical aspects of the surgery | ||
| White papers or narrative reviews | ||
| Articles identified as preliminary reports when results are published in later versions |
*Conventional pedicle screws were instrumented through a mini-open approach without use of percutaneous pedicle screw systems.