Résumé
Background: the incidence of spinal trauma has risen sharply worldwide in recent years, the main contributors being road side accidents, sports injuries and fall from heights
Objective: the objective of the study is; to assess the postoperative outcome of the intervertebral titanium cage, in patients operated for traumatic unstable thoracolumbar burst fractures
Patients and Methods: this is a prospective study, carried out in the Department of Neurosurgery, Sheikh Zayed Hospital, Rahim Yar Khan, during 3 years, from 1st November, 2005 to 31st October, 2008. All the patients of adult age of either sex, with spinal injury underwent a neurological and radiological assessment, and those patients rendered fit for surgery, were operated upon with an intervertebral adjustable titanium cage. The patients were followed up for one year
Results: the study comprised of 3 7 patients, of all ages with 30 males and 7 females, all were received in the emergency department. The majority of the patients had L 1 fracture 19 [51 %] followed by D 12 fracture in 10 [2 7% ]. The main cause of spinal injury was fall from height in 80% and road side accidents in 20% of cases. The neurological status of the patients received in emergency showed paraplegia in 41 % while Para paresis in 59% of patients. The neurological outcome of 37 patients after one year of follow up showed marked improvement in 22 patients of incomplete spinal cord injury [Para paresis] who showed 100% improvement in their weakness in comparison to little or no improvement in 15 patients of complete spinal cord injury [paraplegia]
Conclusion: our experience with usage of the titanium cage in traumatic vertebra has shown to be very promising, especially in patients of Para paresis and it can become a main stay of surgical management in thoracolumbar burst fractures in our setup