Long-term lumbar facet joint changes in spinal fracture patients treated with Harrington rods

Reports in the literature have questioned the practice of using Harrington distraction rods spanning unfused spinal segments for internal fixation of the fractured thoracolumbar spine. However, the long-term incidence of facet joint osteoarthritis has not been reported. This is the report on a retrospective analysis of 20 of these patients with an average follow-up period of 8.0 years. Eighty-five percent of the patients received a classification of good to excellent regarding back pain and 90% returned to their preinjury occupation. Of significance, of 75 lumbar facets traversed by rods but not fused, only two were classified as "closed" or autofused. It remains to be seen if some pedicular systems are superior to this technique in trained hands. However, multisegmental instrumentation with unisegmental fusion is possible without obtaining the severe osteoarthritic changes that animal studies have demonstrated.