Publication:

Clinico radiological outcomes of thoracolumbar vertebral fractures: insights from a regional Indian cohort

Background Thoracolumbar fractures are one of the frequent spinal injuries especially in the developing areas where road accidents and occupational trauma are common. Their resource management in resource constrained health care setting is a special challenge. The paper is an evaluation of short-term (6 months) clinic radiological prognoses of patients with thoracolumbar fractures compared to clinical recovery as per radiological parameters in conventional conservative and surgical interventions.

Methods This prospective observational study included 30 patients (26 males, 4 females) with traumatic thoracolumbar fractures treated between January 2023 and June 2024 at Hassan Institute of Medical Sciences. Patients were assessed using the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) spine chart, ASIA Impairment Scale (AIS), and radiological tools (X-rays, CT, MRI, and Thoracolumbar Injury Classification and Severity Score – TLICS). Surgical intervention was indicated for TLICS ≥5, progressive neurological deficits, or >50% vertebral height loss, whereas TLICS ≤3 were managed conservatively. Outcomes were followed up at admission, 7 days, 6 weeks, 12 weeks, and 24 weeks.

Results Short-term clinic radiological evaluation demonstrates that individualized management—guided by TLICS and ASIA parameters—achieves satisfactory recovery in thoracolumbar fractures. Conservative management remains effective for stable injuries, while surgical stabilization provides structural benefits in unstable fractures. Larger multicentric studies with extended follow-up are needed to validate these findings.

Conclusions The database of our retrospective study regarding age and sex incidence, clinicopathological features and therapeutic outcome was comparable to other studies in various literatures.