Narrow Results

A total of 116 surgically treated patients with unstable fractures of the thoracic and lumbar spines were subjected to this study on basis of the simple radiographic and CT findings of the injured spinal column and neurological changes at the injured cord and/or roots level. Among them 50 patients were paraplegics and 66 patients were non-paraplegics. Spine fracture patterns shown on axial CT images were classified into five types on the basis of the fracture severity of vertebral body associating the canal compromise by the encroached fracture fragments from middle column and posterior element. Type I: vertical linear fracture through mid-anterior and posterior elements; Type II: retropulsed fragment in the canal with intact posterior element; Type III: retropulsed fragment in the canal with fracture of the posterior element; Type IV: severe comminution of body and disruption of posterior element around the canal; Type V: fracture-dislocation of comminuted vertebral body and neural arch (with or without double margin sign and with or without vacant facet sign). Displacement of vertebral body on lateral plane radiograms showed significant difference ($p$ < 0.001) between the non-paralytics and paralytics, but there were no differences in kyphotic angles and anterior body height loss between the two groups. Neurological injury was highly complicated in cases of the fracture-dislocation (20 out of 22 patients: 90.9%). Unstable fracture which occurred in the thoracic level showed high incidence of neurological injuries [24 out of 28 patients (85.7%)]; complete paralysis in 20 (71.4%) out of 28 patients in comparison with that of the thoracolumbar and lumbar fractures. Anteroposterior (AP) diameter of the compromised neural canal and percentile surface area of the compromised canal showed significant differences between the paralytics and non-paralytics (canal diameter: $p$ < 0.05, canal compromise: $p$ < 0.05). Neural deficit was highly complicated in type IV and V fractures. In conclusion, it was found that clinical neurological assessment and CT-based fracture classification were the valid approaches in managing the fractured spine.

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