Epidemiological, clinical, paraclinical and therapeutic profile of lumbar spondylolisthesis in hospital practice at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Brazzaville (Congo)

Objective: To describe the epidemiological, clinical, paraclinical and therapeutic profile of lumbar spondylolisthesis.

Patients and methods: Cross-sectional, retrospective descriptive study from January 01, 2008 to December 31, 2017 (10 years) in the Rheumatology and General Surgery departments of CHU-B. Included were adults ≥ 18 years of age, followed for spondylolisthesis meeting Meyerding criteria.

Results: Of 2961 patients seen in consultation, 371 were included. Women predominated (87.6%), with a sex ratio of 0.1, giving a hospital frequency of 13.2%. The mean age was 61.2 ± 9.8 years (extremes: 28 to 89 years). The most common clinical presentation was low back pain in 368 patients (99.2%). The latter was associated with radiculalgia in 70.9% of cases (n=263). The mean duration of spondylolisthesis was 2.3 ± 2.6 years (extremes: 01 months to 11 years). Radiographically, lesions were mainly located at L4-L5 (72.8%) and L5- S1 (15.9%). Degenerative spondylolisthesis was the most common type (91.6%). Grade I was the most frequent (71.4%), followed by grade II (28.6%). Treatment was mainly medical in all patients. Surgical management was indicated in 97.7% of cases in the event of resistance to well-managed medical treatment, or the appearance of a neurological deficit in 2.3% of cases.

Conclusion: Spondylolisthesis appears to be common at CHU-B, affecting mainly elderly women. Radiographic lesions were predominantly located at L5-S1 and L4-L5, and were more often grade 1.