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Updated: Nov 17, 2025

Minimally Invasive Treatment for Thoracolumbar Burst Fracture Using Sagittal Alignment Screws and A Trauma Reduction Device
Published on: November 8, 2024
C2 quad-screws facilitate 4-rod fixation across the cervico-thoracic junction
Clarke I Cady-McCrea1, Michael A Galgano1
1Department of Neurosurgery, Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, New York, United States.
Background:
Cervical spine deformity is a potentially devitalizing problem. Contemporary techniques for repair and reconstruction include fusion using rods of tapered diameter alone, or quadruple-rod constructs in which primary rods are joined to floating accessory rods by connectors. Here, we present how we utilized a quadruple-rod construct to perform five C2 to thoracic spine fusions.
Methods:
Our hospital electronic medical record revealed five patients who underwent the four rod C2-thoracic spine fixation. Patients ranged in age from 14-years-old to 78-years-old. The mean operative time was 715.8 min (range 549-987 min), and average estimated blood loss was 878 cc (range 40-1800 cc).
Results:
None of the five patients sustained any intraoperative complications, and none demonstrated progressive kyphotic deformity over the average follow-up interval of 8 months.
Conclusion:
We successfully treated five patients with degenerative or oncologic cervical pathology requiring fixation across the cervicothoracic junction utilizing a 4-rod C2-cervicothoracic fusion technique.
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