Outcome of short segment added injury level pedicle screw fixation and conventional short segment pedicle screw fixation in thoraco-lumbar spine fractures

Background: Conventional open spine surgery has several reported limitations including Hardware failure due vertebral factors, or a combination of both and loss of kyphosis correction.so by adding pedicle screw at injury level vertebrae this limitation was not occurred. Materials and methods: 50 patients of thoraco-lumbar fractures were selected between Oct 2013 to Oct 2015, with 25 randomly selected cases in each group and were managed by posterior either by conventional pedicle screw fixation (CPSF) or open short segment injury level pedicle screw fixation(SSIPSF). Results: All the patients were followed up for a period of 6 to 24 months (average was 12.2 months). The kyphotic angle in SSIPSF pre-op was 26.76±4.33°, final follow-up was 13.60±2.63° with final correction of 13.16±3.47° compared to kyphotic angle in CPSF pre-op was 29.08±8.301°, final follow-up was 21.28±6.12° with final correction of 7.80±4.60°. SSIPSF offers better intra-op and post-op advantages over CPSF like Better kyphotic angle correction and better stability with no additional compication and no hardware failure. Conclusion: SSIPSF is a good procedure for wedge compression & burst fractures of spine in patients. Open SSIPSF inclusion of the fracture level into the construct offers a better kyphosis correction, in addition to no instrument failures, without additional complications had better and more rigid construct than CPSF. Key Words: Thoracolumbar fractures, Pedicle screw, Conventional pedicle screw fixation (CPSF), Short segment injury level pedicle screw fixation (SSIPSF)