Clinical Efficacy and Imaging Observation of Three Surgical Approaches in Treatment of Thoracolumbar Fractures

OBJECTIVE: To observe the efficacy and imaging of surgical treatment of thoracolumbar fractures via the paravertebral muscle space approach. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted on patients with thoracolumbar fractures receiving surgery in Baoding First Central Hospital from January 2019 to December 2020. According to different surgical approaches, they were divided into paravertebral approach group, posterior median approach group and minimally invasive percutaneous approach group. They received surgery via the paravertebral muscle space approach, posterior median approach and minimally invasive percutaneous approach, respectively. RESULTS: Statistically significant differences were found in surgical duration, intraoperative bleeding volume, intraoperative fluoroscopy frequency, postoperative drainage volume and hospital stay among the three groups. One year after surgery, the VAS, ADL and JOA scores of the paravertebral approach group and the minimally invasive percutaneous approach group had statistically significant differences from the posterior median approach group (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: For the surgical treatment of thoracolumbar fractures, the clinical efficacy of the paravertebral muscle space approach is superior to that of the traditional posterior median approach, and the clinical efficacy of the minimally invasive percutaneous approach is similar to that of the posterior median approach. All the three approaches can effectively improve the postoperative function and pain symptoms of patients without increasing the incidence of complications. Compared with the posterior median approach, the surgery via the paravertebral muscle space and minimally invasive percutaneous approaches presents shorter surgical duration, less bleeding and shorter hospital stay, which is more conducive to postoperative recovery of patients.