Caracterización y procederes operatorios efectuados en las fracturas toracolumbares transicionales.

Background: considering the impact of thoracolumbar fractures (TLF) on society and health services globally as a nosological disease; there is a great social demand that surrounds the care of these patients due to their disabling sequelae, the approach of the therapeutic process due to its complexity and various controversies.Objective: to review the transitional TLF and characterize the surgical effectiveness of various operative procedures. Methods: a descriptive study was carried out in patients treated in the Orthopedic, Traumatology and Neurosurgery services of the Hospital “Dr. Ernesto Guevara de la Serna”, Las Tunas, diagnosed as thoracolumbar transitional fractures, who were surgically operated on at this hospital for four years. Results: according to reliable statistics, there was a high incidence of these injuries, 54 cases per million inhabitants and about 17,000 spinal cord injuries annually; the most discussed and widely accepted classification was the update of AO Spine Thoracolumbar Injury Classification System in 2013 and its morphological modifiers; there was no reference standard to universally conceptualize “stability”; these occur most frequently in the T11-L2 segment with variations among authors; age and sex demographic variables were similar to those found in other investigations; complications included recurrence of axial angulation, implant fatigue and surgical site infection. Evaluation of results was satisfactory.Conclusions: the effectiveness of surgical treatment in TLF was characterized, there were some controversies on scales, criteria for instability and selection of surgical techniques and their variants.