Recovery of Long Standing Neurological Deficit in Pediatric Dorsal Spinal Tuberculosis: A Single Center Experience of 13 Cases

STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective analysis of case series. OBJECTIVE: The aim is to study the recovery of neurological deficit in pediatric spinal tuberculosis cases presenting to us more than 6 months after onset of motor weakness in lower limbs. METHODS: This is a retrospective analysis of 13 consecutive patients of pediatric spinal tuberculosis presenting to us at least 6 months after the onset of neurologic deficit. All these patients underwent surgical intervention at our center and their neurological recovery was noted in terms of improvement in Frankel grading and spasticity improvement by modified Ashworth scale. All the patients were followed up to at least 18 months post op and final neurologic status was assessed at that time. RESULTS: The mean age of the patients at presentation was 8.5 years. The mean duration of neurologic deficit at the time of presentation was 10.23 months (6-24 months). Seven patients had a Frankel grade B at presentation out of which 6 improved to Frankel grade D and one improved to Frankel C at final follow up. Out of the other 3 patients with Frankel A at presentation, 2 improved to Frankel grade D and 1 to Frankel grade C. The remaining 3 patients presented with Frankel grade C at presentation, 2 improved to Frankel D and one improved to Frankel E at the time of final follow up. CONCLUSION: Neurologic recovery in patients with neurological deficit is possible even in cases of long standing deficit more than 6 months and in some cases upto 24 months as shown in our study.