Late results of thoracolumbar vertabra fracture treated with non fusion posterior instrumentation

A detailed evaluation of patients and complete understanding of mechanism of bone, soft tissue and nerve injury mechanism is essential for treatment of thoracolumbar spine injuries. The initial evaluation begins with clinical and radiologic assessment. Radiologic evaluation includes both plain radiography and advanced imaging methods like computed tomography, myelography and magnetic resonans imaging. Clinical evaluation includes both the general trauma examinations and detailed local spine and neurologic examina-tion. Despite the advances in spinal instrumentation systems majority of the patients with thoracolumbar spine injuries are treated nonoperatively. More aggressive treatments are guided by the classification systems that tries to distinguish between stabile and instabile fractures. The aim of the treatment is to provide spinal stability, im-provement or protection of the neurologic status of the patient and allowing rapid ambulation. So we search late results of posterior instrumentation without fusion for surgically treated fractures of the thoracolumbar spine and we found the results very satisfactory.