Monitoring the changes of spinal artery blood flow (SCBF) and its impact on the safety of spinal cord function during spinal deformity osteotomy by laser speckle imaging: a prospective clinical study

In the process of spinal traction and shortening, the diameter of spinal cord blood vessels decreased and gradually increased. The pulling operation will lead to the decrease of SCBF, while the shortening operation will make the SCBF increase first and then decrease. Before and after operation, there were significant correlations between the resistance index and flow velocity of bilateral vertebral artery, SCBF and ODI scores, and the diameter of bilateral spinal artery and the resistance index of bilateral vertebral artery. When the degree of spinal shortening is controlled within 1/3 of that after single vertebral osteotomy in the lower thoracic spine, the change of SCBF is positively correlated with the increase of spinal cord vascular diameter, and the shortening of less than 1/2 after single vertebral osteotomy in the lower thoracic spine can be regarded as the safety threshold.