RESUMEN
OBJECTIVE: To compare the advantages and disadvantages among the conventional operative methods with the primary anterior debridement, intercentrum auto grafting, and anterior internal fixation method for the thoracolumbar spinal tuberculosis, and to discuss the applying principle. METHODS: Twenty-seven patients with thoracolumbar spinal tuberculosis were treated by the primary anterior debridement, intercentrum auto grafting, and anterior internal fixation, 8 patients were treated by focus debridement and intercentrum auto grafting operations, and the other 22 patients were treated by focus debridement from Feburary 1998 to July 2003, and we analysed the status of the grafting bone fused, the neural function resumed, the malformation rectified and the whole cure ratio. RESULTS: All patients were cured after the follow-up of 15.2 months averagely. Three thoracic spinal and 1 lumbar spinal tuberculosis patients who suffered local infection were cured by debridement and other managements. The time of beginning active movement postoperatively was shortened, and the degrees of kyphosis correction had increased in the anterior internal fixation group compared with the other two groups (P <0.05). But the cost and the bleeding resulted from operation had increased in the anterior internal fixation group compared with the other two groups (P <0.05). CONCLUSION: The conventional and the modern operation methods of thoracolumbar spinal tuberculosis have respective advantages and disadvantages, so that they can complement rather than replace each other.