Surgical Treatment of Spinal Metastases

Kim, Hhyn Jib

Abstract

The author analysed the clinical findings, result of surgical treatments in a series of 37 patients with spinal metastatic tumors. And the author also compared the results of conventional decompressive laminectomies with surgery of systematically designed decompressions and spinal fusions. In this series, spinal metastases from the gastrointestinal tract and the liver were prominently frequent(27%) and the next were from the lung(18%). The throacic spine was the commonest site of metastases(76%). Postoperatively 25 cases(68%) were improved, 7 cases(19%) were of no change, and remaining 5 cases(13%) were aggravated. Only one case of 30 spinal cord compression patients was ambulatory preoperatively. but 50%(15cases) were ambulatory after operations. Systematically designed decompression with stabilization yielded higher rate of ambulatory function(67%) compared with decompressive laminectomies(33%). These data suggest that systematic decompression with spinal stabilization can maintain or regain the ambulation in spinal metasteses compressing the spinal cord.