Transpedicular intracorporeal grafting for patients with thoracolumbar burst fractures.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the efficacy of reinforcing short-segment fixation with transpedicular intracorporeal grafting in restoring vertebral body height and preventing loss of correction in patients with thoracolumbar burst fractures. METHODS This retrospective study was carried out from the Affiliated Hospital of Jiangsu University, Jiangsu, China. Forty-six patients with thoracolumbar burst fractures without neurological deficit were operatively treated between July 2008 and June 2011. Patients in group A (n=21) were treated by short-segment fixation with transpedicular intracorporeal grafting, whereas patients in group B (n=25) were treated by short-segment fixation without bone grafting. The preoperative, postoperative, and follow-up radiographs (anterior, middle, posterior vertebral height, and local kyphosis angle) were evaluated. RESULTS All 46 patients in both groups obtained satisfactory reduction of fractured vertebrae. There were no significant differences between the 2 groups according to the improvement of body height and local kyphosis angle. However, correction losses were observed in both groups. Less losses of anterior body height (p=0.0007), middle body height (p<0.0001), and local kyphosis angle (p=0.0447) were detected in group A than group B. The rate of failure in group A (4.8%) was significantly lower than that in group B (28.0%) (p=0.0383). CONCLUSION Reinforcement of short-segment fixation with transpedicular intracorporeal grafting can effectively restore vertebral body height and prevent loss of correction for patients with thoracolumbar burst fractures.