The effect of adjunctive therapy with Jin Tiange capsules for the treatment of lumbar posterolateral fusion

Objective To evaluate the clinical effect of adjunctive therapy with Jin Tiange capsules for the treatment of lumbar posterolateral fusion(LPF).Methods From February 2007 to February 2008,153 cases that had undergone LPF in our department were involved in this study.Seventy-six cases were randomly selected as study group(Jin Tiange capsules accompanied with calcium for the post-surgical bone health therapy),and 77 cases were in control group(calcium for post-surgical bone health therapy only).X-ray images were used to evaluate the fusion situation after 12 months follow up.Vision analogue scale(VAS) was used to grade residual low back pain after LPF.All data were documented and analyzed using SPSS 13.0 software.Results: The 12-month post-operation X-ray image showed that in study group 70 cases achieved bony fuion(fusion rate 92.1%) and bone resorption occurred in 4 cases.In control group,59 cases achieved bony fusion(fusion rate 76.6%) and bone resorption occurred in 18 cases.The fusion rate in the study group was significantly higher than that in the control group(P 0.05).The VAS score was 7.48 ± 0.341 on the first week post-operatively and 1.54 ± 0.61 on one year after the operation in the study group.In the control group the VAS score was 7.33 ± 0.46 on the first week post-operatively and 3.04 ± 0.39 on one year after the operation.The improvement of VAS score in the study group was significantly better than that in the control group,indicating the treatment effect in the study group was better than that in the control group.Conclusion Compared with traditional calcium therapy only,Jin Tiange capsules adjunctive therapy could significantly promote LPF's fusion rate and release low back pain after LPF.