Mohammed All Bukhari, Waqar Aziz Rahman, Ahmed Nadeem Tahir, Ali Manzoor, Hussain Abid.
A three years prospective study of spinal injuries treated by internal fixation with adjustable titanium cage.
J Sheikh Zayed Med Coll Jan ;1(1):21-7.

Background: The incidence of spinal trauma has risen sharply world wide in recent years, the main contributors being road side accidents, sports injuries and fall from heights. Objective: The objective of the study is; to assess the postoperative out come of the intervertebral titanium cage, in patients operated for traumatic unstable thoracolumber burst fractures. Patients & Methods: This is a prospective study, carried out in the Department of Neurosurgery, Sheikh Zayed Hospital, Rahim Yar Khan, during 3 years, from 1st November, 2005 to 31st October, 2008. All the patients of adult age of either sex, with spinal injury underwent a neurological and radiological assessment, and those patients rendered fit for surgery, were operated upon with an intervertebral adjustable titanium cage. The patients were followed up for one year. Results: The study comprised of 37 patients, of all ages with 30 males and 7 females, all were received in the emergency department. The majority of the patients had LI fracture 19 (51%) followed by D12 fracture in 10 (27%). The main cause of spinal injury was fall from height in 80% and road side accidents in 20% of cases. The neurological status of the patients received in emergency showed paraplegia in 41% while paraparesis in 59% of patients. The neurological outcome of 37 patients after one year of follow up showed marked improvement in 22 patients of incomplete spinal cord injury (paraparesis) who showed 100% improvement in their weakness in comparison to little or no improvement in 15 patients of complete spinal cord injury (paraplegia). Conclusion: Our experience with usage of the titanium cage in traumatic vertebra has shown to be very promising, especially in patients of paraparesis and it can become a main stay of surgical management in thoracolumber burst fractures in our setup.

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