[Treatment of compression fractures of the spine by repositioning and immobilization in hyperextensive plaster casts].

The treatment results of 57 patients were evaluated clinically and radiologically according to Daniaux. A comparison of the X-ray pictures taken immediately after injury and after reposition of displacement with those after removal of a plaster cast and at a follow-up examination revealed in all the patients improvement of various degree of the wedge-shaped deformation after reposition and application of a plaster cast. Loss of correction after removal of a plaster cast was found in 11 patients, mainly with the wedge shaped deformation and lowering also of the posterior part of the vertebral body. On final follow-up examination, loss of correction was found in further 12 patients. They were mainly patients aged over 50 years, most of them women, and patients with primary vertebral body deformation of over 1/3 of the height. The best results were obtained in young persons with the wedge-shaped deformation of the vertebral body of less than 1/3 of the original vertebral body height.