Traumatic lumbosacral spondyloptosis treated five months after injury occurrence: a case report.

STUDY DESIGN

A case report.

OBJECTIVE

To describe a case of traumatic lumbosacral spondyloptosis and present a literature review.

SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA

Traumatic spondyloptosis is a very rare injury caused by high-energy trauma. Eight cases of traumatic spondyloptosis of L5-S1 have been reported, including only 1 case treated 8.5 months after injury occurrence.

METHODS

A 45-year-old Myanmar male experienced severe lower back pain and paresis of the lower extremities after a landslide disaster. Plain radiographs showed spondyloptosis, with the 5th lumbar vertebra located anterior to the 1st sacral vertebra. Computed tomography myelography demonstrated complete bilateral pars interarticularis fracture dislocation at L5-S1 and a complete block between L5 and S1 with apparent spondyloptosis. Neurological function of this patient improved after conservative treatment for 5 months; however, his severe lower back pain persisted. Thus, surgery for in situ posterior decompression and fusion of L3-S1 was performed.

RESULTS

Lower back pain of the patient had nearly disappeared 2 weeks after surgery, and he was able to walk for more than 1 hour without assistance 2 years after surgery.

CONCLUSION

We performed posterior decompression and in situ fusion of L3-S1 for the patients with traumatic lumbosacral spondyloptosis treated 5 months after injury, and the surgery produced a favorable clinical outcome.