Background: Thoracolumbar fractures have the characteristics of acute onset, rapid change, and severe trauma. The best way to treat thoracolumbar fractures is through fracture reduction surgery. The surgical methods include percutaneous pedicle screw, posterior percutaneous pedicle screw internal fixation, and open pedicle screw internal fixation.
Methods: We searched the PubMed, Embase, and Medline English database from April 1991 to April 2021, and the keywords included "percutaneous tablet screen", "posterior percutaneous tablet screen fixation", "open tablet screen fixation", "fracture of thoracic vertebrae", "thoracic fractures", "thoracic", and "vascular fracture". RevMan5.3 provided by Cochrane was used for meta-analysis.
Results: A total of 9 articles were included in this study. Percutaneous pedicle screw fixation and posterior percutaneous pedicle screw fixation were adopted as the surgical methods, and patients were enrolled into experimental and control groups. Open pedicle screw internal fixation was set as the control group. The mean difference (MD) of operation time, blood loss, pain score, postoperative complications, screw debris rate, and hospital stay were -0.73, -192.16, -0.70, 1.49, 0.32, and -1.26, respectively; 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were (-0.94, -0.51), (-213.23, -171.09), (-0.82, -0.57), (0.47, 4.79), (0.10, 0.99), and (-1.82, -0.71), respectively; Z values were 6.71, 17.87, 10.95, 0.67, 1.97, and 4.46, respectively; and P values were <0.00001, <0.00001, <0.00001, 0.50, 0.05, and <0.00001, respectively.
Discussion: A total of 9 articles were included in this meta-analysis. Compared with open surgery, the use of percutaneous pedicle screw and posterior percutaneous pedicle screw fixation had less blood loss, shorter operation time, shorter hospital stay, less pain, as well as lower screw dislocation and postoperative infection rates, indicating that the use of percutaneous pedicle screw and posterior percutaneous pedicle screw fixation is more effective than open surgery.
Keywords: Percutaneous pedicle screw; meta-analysis; open pedicle screw internal fixation; posterior percutaneous pedicle screw internal fixation.