Clinical outcomes of surgical treatment of spinal tuberculosis with paraplegia / 中华骨科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the clinical outcomes of the surgical management for spinal tuberculosis with paraplegia retrospectively.Methods From March 2008 to April 2012,we retrospectively analyzed 78 patients with spinal tuberculosis combined with paraplegia.Among them,45 patients were male and 33 were female.The average age was 39.5(13 to 71) years.69 patients had focus-active paraplegia.41 patients had received chemotherapy before admissed to our hospital.They also received further standard chemotherapy for an average period of 2.3 (0 to 4) weeks after the admission.22 patients with complex complications (6 patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis,5 with tuberculous meningitis,7 with drug hepatitis,3 with kidney failure and 1 with unstable angina) received preoperative treatment for an average period of 4.5(3 to 8) weeks after the admission.6patients were managed with chemotherapy only.All 9 patients who had focus-healed paraplegia received surgical treatment after the admission immediately.Results All the patients were followed up clinically and radiologically for an average period of 31.4 (12 to 48) months.There was no recurrence of patients.At the final follow-up,all the patients had achieved rigid bony fusion.Both the VAS score and the Cobb angle had satisfactory improvement postoperatively and at the final follow-up.The neurological status began to improve 1-21 days after the operation.From 3 months postoperatively to the final follow-up,65 patients achieved complete recovery,7 partial recovery and 6 no recovery.The clinical outcomes for focus-active paraplegia were similar,while focushealed paraplegia had slower recovery and worse outcomes.Conclusion Patients with focus-active paraplegia combined with mild destruction and relative favourable neurological status could be treated conservatively.For patients with severe bony destruction and neurologic deficits (Frankel A-C,or combined with kyphosis),surgical treatment as early as possible is crucial to improve the neurologic status.If patients had contraindications,operation could be performed after the complications had been cured.However,the neurologic status improvement in focus-healed paraplegia is worse than focus-active paraplegia,suggesting that the reconstruction of spinal stability is important for initial treatment of spinal tuberculosis and children.