La Jolla Spine Institute La Jolla Spine Institute
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La Jolla, CA 92037
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Spinal Disorders
  Cervical Sprain / Whiplash  
  Thoraco-Lumbar Fracture
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THORACO-LUMBAR FRACTURE (Compression Fracture)
Case Study
This 19 year old woman was involved in a motor vehicle accident. She sustained L2 and L3 burst fractures. Note the wedging of both vertebral bodies, as well as some scoliosis due to asymmetric collapse (Images A & B).

The CT scans (Images C & D) reveal the amount of bone in red pushing into the spinal canal in blue.


A lumbar instrumentation was performed from L1 to L4 (Images E & F). This resulted in complete correction of the deformity of the spine.

Instrumentation is usually accompanied by fusion to maintain the spine in the corrected position. In this young patient, however, instrumentation was done without fusion, and the instrumentation was removed 6 months later. This allowed this young woman to maintain the normal mobility of her lumbar spine.

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