A Clinical Study of the Thoraco-lumbar Spine Fractures and Fracture-dislocations / 대한정형외과학회잡지

ABSTRACT

In recent years the rate of the spine frecture tends to be on the increase year by year as the rate of traffic and industrial accidents are increased. Realignment of the displaced vertebral column should be achieved for two reasons. It provedes better neural decompression than a laminectomy in most instances and permits stabilization of the axial skeleton in a position of function. One hundred and nine thoraco-lumbar spine fractures and fracture-dislocations out of 102 patients were evaluated from January, 1972 to December, 1977 in our study. 1. Out of the 102 patients, there were 89 male and 13 female cases. The ratio between male and female was 6.8 1. The majority(77.1%) of the spine fractures was found in the age group of 20 to 50 years. 54.2% of the cases was caused by industrial accident. 2. The most Common site of the lesion occured between T 12 and L 2 vertebrae (82.6%) and the simple anterior wedge fracture (69.7%) was most common. 3. Thirty one cases of the total were complicated by paraplegia, of which 77.4% was caused by rotational fracture-dislocation and most common site of the lesion was between T 12 and L 2 vertebrae (93.8%). 4. Prognosis for neurological recovery in initially complete lesions was poor, regardless of treatment. About 10% of initially complete lesions showed partial neural recovery compared to 62.5% of initially incomplete lesions. 5. All 6 patients on bladder training with intermittent catheterization became catheter free within 3 months.