Traumatic Spino‐pelvic Dissociation with Bilateral Triangular Fixation

Objective

To evaluate the clinical outcomes of traumatic spino‐pelvic dissociation (TSD) treated with modified bilateral triangular fixation.

Methods

Eighteen consecutive patients of TSD were included in the study from March 2011 to March 2015, and the medical records of patients were reviewed retrospectively. There were 14 men and 4 women with an average age of 33.1 ± 1.4 years (range, 18–55 years). A total of 16 cases were caused by falling, and 2 cases were caused by traffic accident. All sacral fractures had associated injuries. According to the morphology of sacral fracture, U‐shaped fractures were present in 10 cases, H‐shaped fractures in 6 cases, and Y‐shaped fractures in 2 cases. According to Roy–Camille classification, there were 12 cases of type II and 6 cases of type III. All patients received surgical treatment with modified bilateral triangular fixation, and the sacral plexus decompression was performed simultaneously on 6 cases whose scores were more than 2 according to Gibbons classification and were found having traumatic canal stenosis or sacral nerve compression detected by preoperative imaging examination. Mears’ radiological evaluation criterion was applied to evaluate the reduction quality of fractures; Gibbons score was applied as the index of neurological deficiency healing, and the clinical outcome of fracture was evaluated with Majeed function assessment at last follow‐up.

Results

All patients were followed up continuously within an average of 32.4 ± 3.6 months (range, 22–48 months). All sacral fractures were healed in an average time of 11.3 ± 2.8 months (range, 8–28 months). According to the Majeed function evaluation, 12 cases were classified as excellent, 4 cases as good, and 2 cases as fair. Meanwhile, the anatomical reduction was obtained in 11 cases, satisfactory reduction in 6 cases, and unsatisfactory reduction in 1 case according to Mears’ radiological evaluation criterion. The average Gibbons score changed from 2.5 ± 0.2 preoperatively to 1.4 ± 0.5 24 months postoperatively, which had a significant difference (t = 2.15, P < 0.05).

Conclusion

Modified triangular fixation combined with internal fixations shows satisfactory clinical outcomes in the treatment of TSD, which is recommended as an effective and advanced surgical choice.