The use of thoracolumbar spinal orthosis in thoracolumbar fractures

Background: Thoracolumbar fractures are classified into four categories according to the mechanism of injury and fracture morphology into compression fracture, burst fracture, flexion-distraction injury, and fracture dislocation. Unfortunately, the management of spinal fracture has lacked standardization given the many unanswered yet relevant questions regarding the outcome. However, management is generally divided into surgical and nonsurgical treatment such as orthosis. We aim to compare the clinical and the radiological outcomes of operative spinal fractures in patients with thoracolumbar spinal orthoses (TLSO) and patients without TLSO. Up to our knowledge, there are no similar studies comparing such management approaches in Saudi Arabia.

Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study conducted in King Saud Medical City which included patients over 18 years of age from the past 10 years who underwent spinal fixation with or without the use of orthotics and had at least 6 months follow-up. We have excluded any patients with degenerative diseases, spinal tuberculosis or spinal tumors. Our primary outcome was radiological outcomes and clinical outcomes among groups using orthotics postoperatively versus groups who didn't use orthotics. Statistical analysis was done utilizing The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) IBM statistical computing program version 21 was used for the statistical data analysis and the alpha significance level was considered at 0.050 level.

Results: The patients were divided into two groups, patients given TLSO postoperatively (group A) (53.1%) and patients not given TLSO postoperatively (group B) (46.9%). Most of the patients had a burst fracture and most (86.4%) had endured a single level spine fracture. Bivariate Pearson's correlations test showed the patients mean perceived pain level [the visual analogue scale (VAS)] had correlated negatively and significantly with their emotional well-being (EM-WB) score, r=-0.132, P<0.05. Moreover, the patients self-rated pain level had correlated negatively and significantly with their satisfaction level with their comfort subscale score, r=-0.156, P<0.05. The patients mean measured kyphotic angle had correlated positively with their mean comfort level satisfaction, r=0.158, P<0.05. A non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test showed that the patients who used TLSO had perceived significantly greater general health (GH) score (mean GH score =77.44) compared to those who have not used TLSO (mean GH score =70.79), Z=2.38, P=0.02. Group A perceived significantly lower satisfaction with their social limitations (mean score =71.32) compared to group B (mean score =89.47) on average, Z=2.10, P=0.040. Group B (n=38) measured a significant decline in their pain level across the three time-point measured pain levels (P<0.001).

Conclusions: Our study concludes that both groups have noticeable reductions in pain postoperatively and have shown decent results with regards to the Short Form 36 (SF-36) scores. However, further research is necessary to gain a comprehensive understanding of the varying effects of bracing versus non bracing long-term outcomes in upper thoracic and thoracolumbar fractures.