u/Few_Blackberry_1960

I’ve received approval and am scheduled for a L2/L3 XLIF in little over 3 weeks. This will be my 3rd lumbar fusion since 2016.

The surgeon has scheduled a two step procedure, on two different days. First day will be XLIF surgery. The next day, he said could be “pinning” or screwing down the facet joints if the cage placed during the XLIF puts pressure on the facets causing significant pain.

My question for anyone with XLIF is did you have your facets pinned and if so was it done as part of one surgery, or split into two? Having done two spinal fusions I’d really love to have everything done all at once, rather than broken up over multiple days.