[Surgical choice of posterior osteotomy way for senile osteoporotic thoracolumbar fracture with kyphosis]

Objective: To investigate the surgical choice of posterior osteotomy way by the observation of clinical outcome of Smith-Petersen osteotomy (SPO), pedicle subtraction osteotomy (PSO) and vertebral column re-section (VCR) for senile osteoporotic thoracolumbar fracture with kyphosis.

Methods: From June 2015 to August 2017, an amount of 8 elderly patients with thoracolumbar kyphosis caused by osteoporotic vertebral fracture underwent osteotomy approach for posterior osteotomy. All patients were old osteoporotic vertebral fracture more than 6 months and received invalid conservative treatment for 3 months including nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs, anti-osteoporosis drugs and acupuncture, etc. There were 3 males and 5 females, with an average age of 73.4 years (66 to 83 years), with an average course of the disease of 34.6 months (8 to 60 months). Eight patients had a total of 8 vertebral fractures, and fracture segment was in T₁₀ of 1 case, T₁₁ of 1 case, T₁₂ of 3 cases, L₁ of 2 cases, L₂ of 1 case. Eight patients showed kyphosis caused by wedge deformation of single segmental vertebral fractures. The thoracolumbar kyphosis and symptoms were progressively developing into central sagittal imbalance. SPO osteotomy was performed in 3 cases, PSO osteotomy in 3 cases, and VCR osteotomy in 2 cases. Orthopaedic effects were analyzed by imaging measurements, including pre- and post-operative kyphosis Cobb angle, localized kyphosis (LK), thoracic kyphosis (TK), lumbar lordosis (LL), sacral tilt angle (ST) and sagittal vertical axis (SVA). Visual analogue scale (VAS) and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) were used to evaluate the pain and lumbar function.

Results: All the eight patients were followed up from 8 to 24 months with an average of 13.5 months and all the symptoms of low back pain have significantly reduced or disappeared. The VAS score decreased from 5-8 points (mean 6.5 points) before surgery to 1-4 points (mean 1.88 points) at the final follow-up, and the score was significantly improved. The ODI score decreased from 36-78 points (mean 60.25 points) before surgery to 10-32 points (mean 20.38 points) at the final follow-up, and the functional score improved significantly. During the follow-up period, X-ray examination showed that some patients had a slight decrease in the height of the intervertebral fusion, and the bone graft was healed. There was no obvious corrected degree loss and internal fixation loosening, and the thoracolumbar kyphosis was significantly improved. The mean Cobb angle of T₁₀-L₂ was reduced from 25.3° to 2.8° with corrected rate of 89.3% ; LK was reduced from 43.4° to 7.1° with corrected rate of 86.2% ; TK was reduced from 49.9° to 30.6°, LL was reduced from 43.6° to 30.8°, and ST was changed from 24.0° to 32.1°, SVA was changed from 6.23 cm to 2.40 cm.

Conclusion: For the different pathological features and deformities of senile osteoporotic thoracolumbar fracture combined with kyphosis, SPO, PSO or VCR can achieve good orthopedic effect and clinical efficacy.