Surgical Outcome After Spinal Fractures in Patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis

Description: The diffuse paraspinal ossification and inflammatory osteitis of advanced Ankylosing spondylitis creates a fused, brittle spine that is susceptible to fracture. The aim of this study is to present the surgical experience of spinal fractures occurring in patients suffering from ankylosing spondylitis and to highlight the difficulties that exist as far as both diagnosis and surgical management are concerned.
Conclusion The operative treatment of these injuries is useful and effective. It usually succeeds the improvement of the patients' neurological status. Taking into consideration the cardiovascular problems that these patients have, anterior and posterior stabilization aren't always possible. In these cases, posterior approach can be performed and give excellent results, while total operation time, blood loss and other possible complications are decreased.
Surgical Outcome After Spinal Fractures in Patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis George Sapkas; Konstantinos Kateros; Stamatios A Papadakis; Spyros Galanakos; Emmanuel Brilakis; George Machairas; Pavlos Katonis BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders © 2009 Full text