RECONSTRUCTIVE AND STABILIZING INTERVENTIONS AS PART OF COMPLEX THERAPY OF PATIENTS WITH SOLITARY SPINE METASTASIS

Abstract

Abstract. Introduction: The problem of diagnosis and treatment of patients with oncological pathology of the spine is relevant due to treatment complexity and the increasing number of patients’ morbidity. Secondary neoplastic processes are common in spine because of its anatomy, physiological features, complex biomechanics and enhanced vascularization. The main clinical manifestations of metastatic lesions of the spine are pain and neurological deficit. The development of spinal cord compression and pain syndrome leads to a sharp deterioration in the quality of life in patients with metastatic lesions of the spine. Despite the progress made in modern surgery of patients with oncological diseases with metastasis to the spine, mortality rates after surgery reaches 6.3% and complications appear in 23% of cases. Aim: Improving the results of treatment of patients with solitary spinal metastases and spinal cord compression. Methods and materials: Between 2010 and 2018, patients with spinal neoformations (N=240) received surgical treatment at Traumatology Unit of North-Western State Medical University named after I.I. Mechnikov. All patients were put into the categories according to their sex, age, histologic type and location of tumors. We assessed patients’ pain severity (BAIII), neurologic status (Frankel scale) and life span (by Kaplan-Meier method). Results: The study presents the analysis of the results of complex therapy of 183 patients with solitary metastases of the spine, who underwent the surgical stage of treatment. For these patients the epidemiological structure and the main clinical and radiological characteristics of solitary metastatic lesions of the spine were determined, a comparative assessment of the effectiveness of various options for surgical interventions in the complex treatment was carried out. To do so, all patients of the primary cohort were divided into 2 groups depending on the volume of surgery. The first group included 54 patients who underwent a radical resection of the affected vertebra in a single block with prosthetics of the anterior support column and posterior instrumental fixation. The second group included 129 patients after palliative decompressive and stabilizing operations from the posterior approach. Conclusion: There were no statistically significant differences between the two studied methods of surgical treatment in terms of the dynamics of the level of pain syndrome, regression of neurological deficit and life expectancy. When choosing the tactics of surgical treatment of patients with solitary spinal metastases, the main method is decompressive and stabilizing interventions, which helps to reduce the risk of surgical complications, improve the quality of life of the patient and continue the complex treatment of the underlying disease.