Citation

Braakman R, Fontijne WP, Zeegers R, Steenbeek JR, Tanghe HL. Acta Neurochir. (Wien) 1991; 111(1-2): 11-17.

Affiliation

Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospital Rotterdam-Dijkzigt, Erasmus University, The Netherlands.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1991, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

1927618

Abstract

Seventy consecutive patients with injuries of the thoracic and lumbar spine accompanied by neurological deficit were prospectively studied and follow-up. In 40 of these patients with a burst fracture, the degree of involvement of the cross-sectional area of the spinal canal, as revealed on first CT after admission, was not correlated with the type and degree of initial neurological deficit. In patients with injuries of the lumbar spine, neurological deficit may be mild, although the sagittal diameter of the spinal canal may be reduced by as much as 90%. We cannot establish a difference in neurological recovery between those cases who were managed conservatively and those in whom a surgical decompression and stabilization procedure was performed. Surgical stabilizing procedures, however, result in immediate stabilization of the spine, they diminish pain, facilitate nursing care and allow more rapid mobilization and earlier active rehabilitation. If major extraspinal injuries form a relative contra-indication to surgical decompression of the cord and stabilization of the spine injury, the patient can quite well be treated conservatively without endangering neurological recovery.

Language: en