Safety and efficacy of spinal loop rectangle and sublaminar wires for osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture fixation

BACKGROUND Natural history of osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures (OVCFs), that is, collapse, loads the rigid pedicle screw rod construct in the absence of anterior column reconstruction, often leading to implant back outs. Semi rigid spinal loop rectangle and sublaminar wire construct allows controlled axial collapse and does not require anterior column reconstruction. MATERIALS AND METHODS This is a retrospective study of 50 consecutive patients of OVCFs. The immediate and final follow-up safety (neurologic deficit, implant failure/back out, revision surgeries, and infection) and efficacy (visual analog scale [VAS] score, axial collapse of the fracture, fracture union and retaining, and the attempted segmental deformity correction) parameters were compared to describe the utility of spinal loop rectangle and sublaminar wiring as a novel, low cost modality of spinal instrumentation for treating OVCFs. RESULTS All the twelve patients with Frankel grade D neurologic deficit improved to Frankel grade E and six patients (out of 8) with Frankel grade C improved to Frankel grade E (and remaining two patients improved to Frankel grade D), following surgery. The average preoperative VAS score of 8.98 (ranging from 5 to 10) improved to 2.76 (ranging from 1 to 10) at final follow-up. Controlled collapse of anterior column, union of OVCF nonunion, and retaining of attempted deformity correction by sublaminar wire anchors cephalad and caudal to the transpedicular decompression was seen in each patient at the final follow-up. CONCLUSION Spinal loop rectangle and sublaminar wiring construct are viable alternative options for stabilizing OVCFs.