At present, there are few studies on the bending angle of connecting rods in pedicle screw fixation for thoracolumbar fractures. Some studies have confirmed that the bending angle of the connecting rod after thoracolumbar fractures has a significant correlation with the postoperative spinal stability.7,8,17-19 Cheng et al. used the normal spinal sagittal Cobb angle as a reference guide for intraoperative bending.10 The study confirmed the importance of the rod bending angle by measuring the angle relationship between the connecting rod and the screw during the operation. However, this study lacked long-term follow-up after operation. What’s more, in their studies, the rod bending angle was the angle between the tangent lines at the two ends of the connecting rod. Another research confirmed that the arc between the connecting points of the connecting rod and the screw is the effective arc.20 Abdollah et al. confirmed that the angle between the screw and the rod, the angle between the screw and the upper endplate, and the distance between the posterior wall and the rod were significantly related to the incidence of adjacent segment degeneration after surgery.7 This study confirmed that the bending rod angle was correlated with the post-operation spinal stability.
In a small number of studies on the bending angle of the connecting rod, the researchers thought that the angle should almost match the kyphosis angle.21 A large number of studies have shown that the coronal Cobb angle is an important indicator of the balance of the coronal position of the spine.11,20-24 According to previous studies, the sagittal Cobb angle is also an important index used to evaluate the spine sagittal balance. 8,25-27 In this study, for the single thoracolumbar vertebra fracture, we redefined the sagittal Cobb angle of a single fractured vertebra as the sagittal Cobb* angle, and its measurement method. Our study first measured the sagittal Cobb* angle of each segment of the normal thoracolumbar segment. Then, the post-operation spinal sagittal stability was analyzed in the retrospective research. The results showed that the sagittal Cobb* angle can be used as a reference angle for bending rods. The contact position of the screw and the rod is not the end of the rod, but the contact position of the U-shaped groove of the screw and the rod. Therefore, the curvature of the excess rod on the upper and lower U-shaped grooves cannot maintain the lordosis and kyphosis angle. Therefore, in our study, the sagittal Cobb* angle is the angle between the tangent of the connection point of the upper screw and the rod and the tangent of the connection point of the lower screw and the rod.
In this study, we selected 150 normal adult lateral spine radiographs. By measuring the sagittal Cobb* angle from T12 to L3 vertebral bodies, we obtained the Cobb* angle reference range of each vertebral body. Some studies described the spinal segmental sagittal curvature as "segmental lordosis".28-30 The sagittal Cobb* angle in this study describes the lordosis range of three consecutive vertebral bodies. Compared with the LL, the variation in different populations is smaller, and the description of the staged lordosis angle is more accurate. The result showed that when the bending angle of the connecting rod is 4 to 8 degrees greater than the corresponding segment sagittal Cobb angle, the patient's spinal sagittal stability is the best two years after the operation. This result further confirms the feasibility and accuracy of using the sagittal Cobb* angle to guide the bending rod.
In this study, the spine stability parameters and the incidence of ASD two years after surgery were used to evaluate the spine sagittal stability. The importance of the spinal sagittal stability after vertebral surgery has been shown in many studies.7,27,31,32 The spinal sagittal parameters include SVA, LL, and TL. Previous studies have shown that the sagittal stability of the spine decreases when SVA>50.0mm. The smaller the value of LL, the higher the incidence of ASD in patients. 33 ASD after lumbar spine surgery is a long-term complication that seriously affects the prognosis of patients. It will cause not only long-term intractable low back pain after surgery, but also some symptomatic ASD that requires secondary surgery. 34 The sagittal imbalance of the spine is one of the main factors leading to ASD. 35 The results showed that when the angle of the bending rod is 4 to 8 degrees greater than the sagittal Cobb* angle, the incidence of spinal imbalance is the lowest, which can maximize the sagittal stability of the spine, and the incidence of ASD is lowest. Although the results showed that the incidence of ASD after operation in group C was not different from that in group B, the results of LL, SVA, PI and PT in the two groups showed that group B has better spinal sagittal stability. In the comparison of pelvic parameters, the value of PI was not statistically significant in the three groups. Therefore, we believe that the angle of the bending rod has little effect on postoperative PI. The results of PT and SS are consistent with the results of the spine sagittal parameters.
At the beginning of the study, we estimated that using the normal sagittal Cobb* angle to guide the bending rod will achieve the best postoperative results, but the final result shows that the bent rod angle is 4 to 8 degrees greater than the sagittal Cobb* angle to achieve the best effect. To analyze the reason, we consider that the bending angle of the connecting rod is greater than the sagittal Cobb* angle, and can resist the loss of the arc of the connecting rod pre-bending caused by the expansion, tightening of the nut, the rotation of the universal screw, early activity, and the increasing age. What’s more, the hyperextension of the connecting rod can minimize the incidence of ASD in patients after surgery.
In the thoracolumbar segment, hyperextension fixation is more conducive to the restoration of spine sagittal balance and reduces the incidence of degeneration of the adjacent segment after surgery. Finally, our study proved that the accuracy of the angle of the bent rod is more important for the postoperative spine sagittal balance.
This study has shown obvious advantages in the method of sample grouping, comparison setup, definition and measurement of Cobb* angle, description of effective radian and method of bending rods. Nevertheless, this study still has some limitations. First, this study included a small sample size during measurement of the normal spinal sagittal Cobb* angle. More sample sizes need to be included in future studies. Second, the study is a retrospective study, with selection bias and loss of follow-up. In future studies, prospective randomized controlled studies can be used to increase the credibility of the results. This study confirmed the influence of the angle of the bent rod on postoperative sagittal spine balance, but there is no further analysis on the influence of factors on the curvature of the bending rod such as the height of the vertebral body after the pre-installation of the connecting rod during the operation and the postoperative activities. Third, the follow-up period of the study was two years. Studies have shown that degeneration of the adjacent segment after thoracolumbar fracture surgery mostly occurs 3-5 years after surgery.36,37 In future studies, we will reduce the limitations of this study to further confirm the feasibility of the sagittal Cobb* angle to guide the intraoperative bending rod.