[Surgical correction of post-traumatic kyphosis: a thoracoscopic approach]

Conservative treatment of an unstable spinal fracture can give lead to post-traumatic kyphosis, and may give rise to serious back pain. Surgical correction can alleviate the problem in patients with this deformity. Operative correction of kyphotic deformities of the thoracic spine and deformities at the level of the thoracolumbar junction are often performed via a thoracotomy or a thoraco-phrenico-laparotomy, respectively. There are also some correction techniques that are only performed via a posterior approach. In accordance with general surgical trends, spinal surgery tries to use minimally invasive intervention in order to reduce operative trauma, postoperative pain and complications. In the authors' hospital, patients with unstable spinal fractures have been undergoing surgery using a thoracoscopic approach for the past few years; now patients with post-traumatic kyphosis are also being treated using a minimally invasive approach. The thoracoscopic approach has been used in major centres abroad for some time, but has not previously been described in the Netherlands.