[The specific features of clinical manifestations and surgical treatment of spastic and pain syndromes after injury to the vertebral column and spinal cord].

The purpose of the investigation was to study the clinical manifestations of spastic syndrome after injury to the vertebral column and spinal cord and to devise its surgical treatment policy. The investigation included 21 patients with significant spasticity or pain syndrome after severe injury to the vertebral column and spinal cord without any potential of motor recovery. All the patients were observed to have severe inferior paraplegia, cacesthesia following the radicular and conduction with total hypo- or anesthesia. Pain was rated, by using the visual analogue scale and the McGill questionnaire, spasticity was estimated by the Ashworth scale. The patients' motor activity was also evaluated. Bilateral rhizomyeolotomy of the dorsal root entry zone (DREZ) was performed in 10 patients with pain syndrome; posterior partial rhizidiotomy was made in 8 patients with spastic syndrome; 3 patients underwent epidural spinal cord stimulation. Groups with a preponderance of pain (47%) and spastic (53%) syndromes were identified. A clinically equal combination of spastic and pain components occurred rarely. Pain was maximally pronounced, neuropathic, metamerically radicular, in dermatomes from the level of injury. Leg spasticity was more marked and concurrent with contracture. The efficiency of lateral rhizomyelotomy of DREZ in the treatment of pain was 89% in the early period and 63% in the late (as long as 4 years) one. That of bilateral posterior partial rhizodiotomy in the treatment of spasticity was 75 and 75% in the early and late (as long as 2.5 years), respectively. Rhizomyelotomy of DREZ is a pathogenetically grounded and effective procedure when there is a preponderance of neuropathic metamerically radicular pain from the level of injury. Bilateral posterior partial rhizidiotomy is the method of choice in treating significant spasticity.