ABSTRACT
Background: Spinal injury is a severe, common injury in surgical emergency. In Vietnam, there are only few studies on fixing thoracolumbar spine. Objectives: To assess and to provide some preliminary remarks on the results of emergency surgery fixing thoracolumbar spine, performed in Viet Duc Hospital. Subjects and method: A descriptive, prospective study was conducted on 31 patients with thoracolumbar spinal injury (22 males, 9 females, the average age 35 years old), operated in Viet Duc hospital from January, 2005 to July, 2006. Results:Patients with thoracolumbar spinal injury was common seen in working ages. 45.2% of them were farmers. 21/31 patients caused by falls. For non-complete paralysis patients, emergency surgery was required as soon as possible. The most of patients recovered completely. For thoracolumbar spinal injury, Burst-fracture and non complete paralysis, surgery with anterior way should be performed to release cord compression and bone graft. For cases of Burst-fracture, no paralysis, surgery with anterior way helped bone fractures were easy to heal, avoiding postoperative humpback recurrence. Conclusion: Combined surgery with 2 ways (before and after) guaranteed fixing spine, making bone healing was more better in case of rupture of vertebrae, releasing directly spinal cord and facilitating to the best recovery of the spinal cord.