Dorsal Approach for Treatment of Thoracolumbar Spine Fractures

摘要

The dorsal approach to thoracolumbar fractures has a long history, but the indications for this or any other specific surgical technique continues to be anecdotal. Significant disagreement over the indications for surgical management has remained almost unaltered from the positions expressed by Drs. Cooper and Bell nearly two centuries ago. Sir Astley Cooper (1839) was an advocate of surgical intervention for spine injuries, whereas Sir Charles Bell's (1824) disdain of surgery as additional iatrogenic injury was widely accepted: "laying a patient upon his belly and by incision laying bare the bones of the spine, breaking up the these bones and exposing the spinal marrow itself, exceeds all belief (1,2).