The spinal canal encroachment on thoracolumbar burst fracture and neurologic deficit

Objective To study the relationship between the percentage of spinal canal encroachment and neurologic deficit Methods The percentage of spinal canal stenosis was measured from computer tomography in 141 patients with burst fracture of the thoracic(T 1-T 10 ), thoracolumber(T 11 -L 2) and lumbar(L 3-L 5) spine and then the relationship between the percentage of spinal canal encroachment and neurologic deficit was investigated Results The results demonstrated that the percentage of spinal canal stenosis was significantly higher in those with neurologic deficit than in those without (P0 05) The order of the mean percentage of spinal stenosis in those with neurologic deficit was thoracicthoracolumbarand lumbar(P0 05)and the difference of the mean percentage of spinal stenosis among the four groups of patients with neurologic deficit classified according to Frankel were not statistically significant Conclusion The spinal canal encroachment was a significant risk of neurologic involvement The higher the level of injury and the higher the percentage of spinal canal stenosis, the greater the probability of a neurologic deficit The severity of the neurologic deficit could not be predicted from the spinal canal stenosis demonstrated by CT