ABSTRACT
Recently there has been a progressive increase of thoracolumbar fractures with neurologic symptoms. It has been thought that laminectomy increased instability and was therefore considered a contraindication. Currently, with the development of instrument for posterior stabilization, it is possible to perform posterior fusion and instrumentation, both with and without laminectomy. To compare the effect of neurologic recovery with and without laminectomy, we analyzed the clinical records of 38 patients with neurologic symptoms who were evaluated with plain radiographs and CT before and after surgery from 1989 to 1996 in Gyeong-Sang National University Hospital. We divided our cases into two groups, one group consisted open reduction with laminectomy and instrumentation with posterior fusion. The other group consisted of open reduction without laminectomy and instrumentation with posterior fusion. Twenty three of 38 were operated with open reduction and internal fixation with laminectomy and others were operated without laminectomy. The results were that both groups had improvement of neurologic symptoms after surgery and at follow-up. There was no significant statistical difference between the two groups. Depending on the time interval between injury and surgery, patients who were underwent emergency surgery had an marked improvement of neurologic symptoms. Except cases of complete paraplegia, incomplete paraplegic patients who were operated within 24 hours with laminectomy group had greater improvement than those without laminectomy. The improvement was statistically significant(P<0.05).