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<sec><title>OBJECTIVE:</title><p> To evaluate the correlation between kyphosis due to burst fractures of thoracic and lumbar spine and clinical outcome in patients undergoing conservative or surgical treatment.</p></sec><sec><title>METHODS:</title><p> A retrospective, cross-sectional study was conducted with 29 patients with thoracolumbar burst fractures treated by the Spine Group in a trauma reference hospital between the years 2002 and 2011. Patients were followed-up as outpatients for a minimum of 24 months. All cases were clinically evaluated by Oswestry and SF-36 quality of life questionnaires and the visual analogue scale (VAS) of pain. They were also evaluated by X-ray examinations and CT scans of the lumbosacral spine at the time of hospitalization and subsequently as outpatients by Cobb method for measuring the degree of kyphosis.</p></sec><sec><title>RESULTS:</title><p> There was no statistically significant correlation between the degree of initial kyphosis and clinical outcome measured by VAS and by most of the SF-36 domains in both patients treated conservatively and the surgically treated. The Oswestry questionnaire showed benefits for patients who received conservative treatment (p=0.047) compared to those surgically treated (p=0.335). The analysis of difference between initial and final kyphosis and final kyphosis alone in relation to clinical outcome showed no statistical correlation in any of the scores used.</p></sec><sec><title>CONCLUSION:</title><p> The clinical outcome of treatment of the thoracic and lumbar burst fractures was not influenced by a greater or lesser degree of initial or residual kyphosis, regardless of the type of treatment.</p></sec>

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Objective: To evaluate the correlation between structural changes in burst fractures of thoracic and lumbar spine with clinical outcome of the treatment. Methods: A retrospective study in 25 patients with fractures of thoracic and lumbar spine burst fractures without neurological deficit. Eleven patients underwent conservative treatment and for the remaining the treatment was surgical. All patients were followed up for at least 24 months. The cases were evaluated by a protocol that included: posttraumatic measurement of kyphosis, vertebral body collapse and narrowing of the spinal canal, the visual analog scale of pain, and the quality of life questionnaire SF-36 at the follow-up. For statistical analysis, the significance level was 5% and the software SPSS 18.0 was used. Results: No statistically significant difference was observed when comparing the clinical outcomes of one treatment over another. Similarly, there was no statistically significant correlation between kyphosis and post-traumatic narrowing of the spinal canal with clinical worsening in the follow-up, regardless of the treatment used. We found a positive correlation (p<0.05) between initial collapse and SF-36 domains in both groups (operated and non-operated). Conclusion: There was no significant superiority of one treatment over the other, and no correlation was found between kyphosis and spinal canal narrowing in burst fractures of the thoracic and lumbar spine without neurological deficit. However, there was correlation between initial collapse and clinical outcome in some domains of the SF-36 questionnaire.