Surgical treatment of unstable compression fractures of thoracic and lumbar spine, with the purpose of restoring anatomical axis of the damaged spinal part and its functions, remains an important and often unsolvable issue. And at the same time, it is essential not only to diagnose a compression of the vertebral body, but also to determine its severity level, which is of a great importance for revealing the nature of static disorders of the vertebral column. Mistakes in treatment of simple fractures of the vertebral body are caused, in the first place, by unclear differentiation between spine stability and instability that come as a consequence of vertebral column injury.
The aim of the current research was to study the treatment results in patients with unstable fractures of thoracic and lumbar spine in acute and early stages.
Materials and methods
We examined 251 patients with spinal injuries aged between 16 and 59 years. The most common type of injury were the traumas received in car accidents; among mechanisms of injury prevailed falls from a great height. The majority of the patients (57,8%) had fractures of lumbar spine; fractures of thoracic spine were diagnosed in 23,4%; both vertebral parts were damaged in 8% of all cases. Using different methods, 80,7% of patients were operated. Spinal fractures without cranial and caudal end-plate collapse and cranial disk injury were treated using posterior spinal fusion using shape memory instrumentation; spinal fractures accompanied by collapse of cranial end-plate and cranial disk injury were treated using anterior transpedicular fixation.
Results
Surgical treatment of unstable compression fractures of thoracic and lumbar spine let achieve stabilization and spinal axis extension in 80,8% of the operated patients.
The work is submitted to Scientific Conference "The Problems of International Integration of Educational Standards", England (London) - France (Paris), April 20-28, 2009. Came to the Editor´s Office on 04.02.2009.