Abstract:[Objective] To investigate the clinical efficacy of robotic versus freehand lateral lumbar interbody fusion (LLIF) with poste-rior pedicle screw fixation for the treatment of lumbar degenerative diseases (LDD). [Methods] A retrospective study was conducted on 43patients who underwent LLID for LDDs in our hospital from January 2019 to January 2022. According to preoperative doctor-patient com-munication, 22 patients underwent robot-assisted single lateral position LLIF and pedicle screw fixation (the robot group), while other 21patients underwent traditional LLIF with changing position and freehand technique (the freehand group). The documents regarding to peri-operative period, follow-up and images were compared between the two groups. [Results] All patients in both groups had operation per-formed successfully. The robot group proved significantly superior to the freehand group in terms of operation time [(136.0±18.6) min vs(149.4±22.0) min, P=0.036], intraoperative blood loss [(124.9±16.5) ml vs (138.2±20.3) ml, P=0.023], intraoperative fluoroscopy times[(11.6±3.7) times vs (40.0±8.1) times, P<0.001]. The mean follow-up time was of (11.3±3.8) months, and there was no significant differencein time to regain full weight-bearing activity between the two groups (P>0.05). The VAS scores of low back pain and leg pain, as well asODI score significantly decreased over time in both groups (P<0.05), which were not statistically significant between the two groups at anycorresponding time points (P>0.05). As for imaging, there was no significant difference in the accuracy of pedicle screw placement betweenthe two groups (P>0.05). Compared with those preoperatively results, the spinal canal area, sagittal diameter of lateral recess and lumbar lor-dosis angle significantly improved in both groups postoperatively (P<0.05), whereas which were not statistically significant between the twogroups at any time points accordingly (P>0.05). [Conclusion] Both robot-assisted and freehand lateral lumbar interbody fusion are effective