Management of Traumatic Unstable Thoracolumbar Spine: Conservative versus Operative Treatment

Traumatic thoracolumbar spine injury result in significant instability of the spine and leads to an acute on delayed neurological deficit. Objective of the study is to find a better option in the management of unstable traumatic thoracolumbar spine with incomplete neurological lesion. This was quasi-experimental study. The study was carried out at National Institute of Traumatology & Orthopedic Rehabilitation (NITOR), Dhaka, Bangladesh from January 2006 to December 2008. A total number of 40 patients with traumatic thoracolumbar spine injuries with incomplete neurological lesion were selected purposively. Out of 40 cases 1 patient missed from final follow up. Rest of 39 patients was included in this study. All patients were admitted within 3 weeks of injury. Most were referred from peripheral hospital & some were admitted in emergency and outpatient department of NITOR. Among those 25 patients were conservatively treated and 14 were operatively treated. Neurological status improvement was assessed by Frankel grading; it was remarkable in operative group. In 56% of the conservative group improved by one grade but 21.42% of operative group had of similar improvement. This one-grade improvement has been classified as fair. Whereas two grade improvement was termed as good. So, good result was obtained in 40% of conservatively treated patients and 57.16% in operatively treated patients. In this study, an overall result was classified as excellent, good, fair andll poor. Three grade upper shifts were categorized as excellent. In excellent result was obtained by operative procedures and it was 21.42%. On the other ward, no patient showed excellent result in conservatively treated group. In Celbeti et al. reported that 16(33.3%) patients had excellent results, 23(57.9%) had good, 70(4.58%) had fair and 20(4.36%) Patients had poor results.