Letter to the chief editor: Outcome of thoracolumbar burst fractures treated with indirect reduction and fixation without fusion. Huilin Yang, Jin-hui Shi, Molly Ebraheim, Xiaochen Liu, Joseph Konrad, Ibrahim Husain, Tian-si Tang, Jiayong Liu Eur Spine J. Published online 8 August 2010

摘要

We read with great interest the article written by Liu et al. This retrospective study included patients with type A or C according AO classification non-osteoporosis thoracolum-bar fractures. They were treated with posterior fixation without fusion after indirect reduction. Almost all patients had instrumentation removal at 9-12 months post-operative. The authors report good long-term outcome for the great majority of included patients.However, the authors report adjacent disc injury and disc degeneration after implants removal without clinical deterioration.According to Roaf [5], the intervertebral disc is always stronger than the vertebral end plate and excessive compression force creates an end-plate fracture. Several animal experimental studies have shown that end-plate fracture can occur when there is pressurization of the nucleus [1].