title: Complete debridement for treatment of thoracolumbar spinal tuberculosis: a clinical curative effect observation.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Traditional focal debridement involves clearing of cold abscesses, caseous necrosis, residual intervertebral disc tissue, sinus tracts, bony sequestration, and inflammatory granulation. Reports have demonstrated that approximately 13% to 26% of patients were not better or relapsed after traditional focal debridement; these patients required a second surgery or prolonged antituberculous therapy. The presence of retained and diseased focal tissues requiring removal remains poorly understood. The contents of these retained tuberculous foci, improvement of surgical strategies, and improvement in spinal tuberculosis success rate are key subjects for discussion.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To explain the contents of foci and explore the surgical methods and curative effect of complete debridement.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective study of the curative effect of treatment of thoracolumbar spinal tuberculosis by using complete debridement.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 289 patients were included.
  
  
  METHODS
  The outcomes were evaluated clinically by Frankel grading. The status of the anterior fusion was assessed according to the Moon standard. Eradication of infection was determined by the level of C-reactive protein and erythrocyte sedimentation rate. X-ray, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging were used to evaluate disease localization and morphology.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 289 patients with spinal tuberculosis (150 male and 139 female patients, aged 18-82; average age, 41.0±1.4 years) were included in this study. Damage to the vertebrae was as follows: 86 patients had thoracic damage, 49 had thoracolumbar damage, 125 had lumbar damage, and 47 had lumbosacral segment damage. After 2 to 4 weeks of antituberculous therapy, all patients underwent anterior debridement, deformity correction, graft fusion, and internal fixation. In this study, complete debridement was defined as the clearing of any damage or disease, including psoas abscesses, granulomas, residual intervertebral disc tissue, sinus tracts, bony sequestration, and inflammatory granulation. Tuberculosis cavities, sclerotic walls, and bony bridges that had no support and that were eroded by the foci were also removed. A total of 108 patients underwent anterior fixation with the Zephir system (Medtronic Sofamor-Danek, Minneapolis, MN, USA), Z plates (Medtronic Sofamor-Danek), or Ventrifix (China Great Wall Corporation, Beijing, China). A total of 181 patients underwent fixation, posterior correction, and one or two second anterior debridements and graft fusions. Posterior fixation, including TSRH (Medtronic Sofamor-Danek), Cotrell-Dubousset (Medtronic Sofamor-Danek), General Spinal System (WeiGao Orthopaedic Devices Company, Weihai City, China), or UPASS (WeiGao Orthopaedic Devices Company), was performed. All patients underwent structural bone grafting, including autologous iliac bone (251 patients), titanium mesh (32 patients), and rib (6 patients).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The 289 patients were followed for 72.0±2.8 months, with 265 patients (91.69%) completely treated and 24 incompletely treated, including 3 who suspended chemotherapy because of liver or renal failure. Twenty-one patients (7.27%) failed to have a complete debridement, including 16 with incomplete bone debridement, 6 of whom underwent a second surgery, and 10 who received conservative therapy; 5 of this group had incomplete abscess debridement, 3 underwent a second surgery, and 2 received puncture aspiration of abscess under computed tomographic guidance; the second surgery rate was 3.81%. Twenty-two patients had surgery complications, including three with graft displacement, five with wound infection and fat liquefaction, four with pleural effusion, six with pain at the graft harvesting site, and four with incisional hernia. Bone graft healing was observed 4.3±1.2 months after surgery. The Cobb angle before and after surgery and at the final follow-up was 22.16±11.51°, 8.11±4.83°, and 9.96±3.49°, respectively, with a mean correction of 63.40% after surgery; however, a 1.85±1.34° loss was observed at the final follow-up with loss rate of 8.35%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Sclerotic bone, multiple cavities, and bony bridges are foci in spinal tuberculosis. Clearing tuberculous foci, sclerotic bone, multiple cavities, and bony bridges to increase the curative effect is an effective treatment method.
authors.affiliation: Department of Spinal Surgery, General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University, Shengli Street 804, Yinchuan, 750004, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China.
authors.forename: Weidong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Science, College of Pharmacy, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33612, USA.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Spinal Surgery, General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University, Shengli Street 804, Yinchuan, 750004, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China. Electronic address: wangzlnx@126.com.
authors.forename: Zili
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Spinal Surgery, General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University, Shengli Street 804, Yinchuan, 750004, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China.
authors.forename: Guangqi
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Geng
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003646:Debridement / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000601:surgery; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013123:Spinal Fusion / Q000379:methods*; D013131:Spine / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014399:Tuberculosis, Spinal / Q000601:surgery*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Complete; Focal debridement; Sclerotic wall; Spine; Tuberculosis