Pedicle fixation: an adjuvant for the treatment of thoracolumbar metastases.

For a long time, radiotherapy was considered as the best treatment for spinal metastases. However, radiotherapy alone could not resolve the problem of pathological fracture which is an important complication of spinal metastases. In this paper, we introduce pedicle fixation system as an adjuvant to radiotherapy to treat eight patients with thoracolumbar metastases. The result was encouraging that all the patients achieved spinal stabilisation and all but one had immediate postoperative relief of back pain. The operation time was short and none of the patients required a blood transfusion. Tissue diagnosis was possible through this approach.