Anand Shankar1, Vishvendra Kumar Sinha2
BACKGROUND Instrumenting the fractured spinal column has seen many changes in last 5 decades. Starting from Luque’s rod (Dr. Eduardo Luque), Hartshill’s rectangle, the Harrington rod (Dr. Paul Harrington), Variable Spinal Plating (VSP), pedicle screw and rod fixation being the latest. The emphasis is on minimally invasive and least possible trauma to paraspinal muscles. Percutaneous pedicle screw fixation is at present a gold standard of minimally-invasive procedure.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
11 patients were operated between August 2013 till March 2016 with this method and the outcome was evaluated.
RESULTS
The neurological recovery is not the goal of spinal column fixation in SCI patients in most of the cases. The only goal is stabilisation of spinal column, pain relief, rehabilitation, prevention of bedsore, RTI by achieving vertical chest, UTI by preventing stasis of urine in bladder, etc.
CONCLUSION
The presenting operative procedure for achieving this goal of stabilisation is very well achieved in 10 out of 11 cases with minimal soft tissue trauma. The improvement in alignment and restoration of anatomy of spinal column, restoration of spinal canal diameter as judged radiologically is achieved in 9 of out of 11 cases.
