Unstable vertebral fractures in the lower third of the spine treated with closed reduction and transpedicular posterior fixation: a retrospective analysis of 82 fractures in 78 patients

Seventy-eight patients were treated with closed reduction and transpedicular fixation for 82 spine fractures. The fractures were localised in the lower third of the spine and were all, according to the Denis classification, considered unstable. Eighteen patients had neurological deficiencies. One patient with a fracture in T11 was completely paraplegic, four patients had a cauda equina syndrome while the rest had radicular symptoms only. Primary reconstruction of the vertebral height and the physiological curves of the spine was satisfactorily obtained. An improvement in the neurological symptoms was observed in all patients with fractures distal to the spinal cord, while the patient with the dislocated fracture of T11 remained completely paraplegic during the follow-up. The complication rate of the transpedicular fixation method used reported by other authors could not be confirmed in our material. Iatrogenic neurological damage was not observed. A partial loss in the correction of the traumatic kyphosis was observed after removal of the implant in 11 patients.