Imran Khan Wazir, Qazi Farhat Ullah, Muhammad Inam, Arif M, Saeed M, Abdul Satar.
Pain relief in patients of thoracolumbar spine fracture treated with pedicle screws and rods.
J Pak Orthop Assoc Jan ;25(1):25-7.

Objective: The objective of this study is to determine the effectiveness of posterior spinal fusion using pedicle screws and rods in terms of pain relief in patients with unstable thoracolumbar spine fracture. Methods and Materials: This descriptive study was done in Department of orthopedics, Hayatabad medical complex Peshawar on 66 consecutive patients from June 2011 to May 2012. Patients of above 18 years of either sex with unstable thoracolumbar spine fracture with moderate to severe pain were included while. Patients with malignancy, infections of spine, Diabetes mellitus and Smokers were excluded from the study. Results: In this study 69.7% patients were male and 30.3% were female. Three months after surgery 61% patients had no pain (Visual Analogue Scale 0 ), 30% patients had mild pain (VAS 1-3) not requiring anti-inflammatory drugs,4(6%)patients had moderate pain(VAS 4-7) requiring the occasional use of analgesics, 2(3%)patients had severe pain(VAS 8-10), with occasional loss of work days and significant changes in daily activities. Conclusions: Posterior spinal fixation with rods and screws results not only in excellent pain control in majority of patients but is also a useful choice for stability of spine and making the nursing care easier in paraplegic patients .

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