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Expanded eggshell procedure, closing-opening technique may offer good outcomes for kyphosis
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Recently published study findings demonstrated that an expanded eggshell procedure combined with the closing-opening technique for the treatment of thoracolumbar angular kyphosis lead to a significantly reduced kyphotic angle.
Researchers included 13 patients with thoracolumbar kyphosis, or a kyphotic angle greater than 60°, in the study. Each patient underwent an expanded eggshell procedure combined with the closing-opening technique. The average preoperative kyphotic angle was 67.3°. Additionally, a control group of 16 patients who were previously treated with a closing-opening wedge osteotomy in the same spine classification group were included. All patients had more than 2 years’ worth of follow-up.
Patients who underwent the expanded eggshell procedure had an average local kyphotic angle of 20.3° and an average correction rate of 68.7%, according to the researchers. The average operative time was 400 minutes, and the average blood loss was 960 ml. In the control group, the average operative time was 470 minutes and the average blood loss was 2,600 mm.
According to the researchers, at the final follow-up exam, patients had an average regional kyphotic angle of 19.9°, and no significant loss of correction was reported. Overall, the researchers noted a greater amount of blood loss and a higher complication rate observed for patients in the control group compared with those who underwent the combined procedure.
The researchers concluded that the combined technique was effective for both thoracic and thoracolumbar angular kyphosis. – by Robert Linnehan
Disclosure: The researchers report the following grants funded this study: ZR2009CQ020 from the Shandong Province Natural Science Foundation, China, and 81277024 from the Natural Science Foundation of China.
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