Department of Neurosurgery NYU Langone Health New York City, New York, United States
Introduction: Posterior spinal fixation with pedicle screw-based constructs is the gold standard for stabilizing the thoracolumbar spine; however, these constructs sometimes fail due to fatigue loading, necessitating revision surgery. A common hardware revision strategy involves open surgery for screw upsizing, with or without cement augmentation, and extension of fusion. Others have described good clinical outcomes following percutaneous juxtapedicular cement salvage of failing pedicle screws. The relative biomechanical properties of these various approaches has not been evaluated. The objective of this study was to investigate the biomechanical strength of juxtapedicular cement salvage of failed thoracic and lumbar pedicle screws, and to compare to three other common revision techniques.
Methods: Thirty-two fresh, un-embalmed vertebrae from four cadaveric thoracolumbar spines were used for the study. The study was conducted in two phases. The first phase involved primary pedicle screw insertions and pullout strength testing to model critical pedicle screw failure. The second phase involved revision of failed pedicle screws followed by pullout testing. The four revision cohorts were: 1) Screw Upsizing, 2) Vertebroplasty (cement augmentation with replacement of primary screw), 3) Fenestrated Screws with cement augmentation, and 4) Juxtapedicular Cement Salvage.
Results: There was no statistically significant difference in primary fixation strength between the cohorts. The Screw Upsizing cohort exhibited inferior pullout strength compared to the other groups which involved cement augmentation. There was no significant difference in pullout strength between Vertebroplasty, Fenestrated Screws, or Juxtapedicular Cement Salvage cohorts.
Conclusion : Cement augmentation confers superior pullout strength compared to screw upsizing only. The key finding of this study is that the technique of percutaneous juxtapedicular cement salvage is biomechanically non-inferior to other revision strategies that require an open procedure to perform.
