What are the purposes of surgery after spinal trauma?

Spinal trauma refers to injury to any part or all of the following anatomical structures: bony structures, soft tissues, and neural structures. Mechanical instability of the spine, and acute or potential injury to neural structures are two fundamental issues of importance to spine surgeons in spinal trauma. After trauma to the spine, various types of injuries can occur depending on the mechanism of external forces applied. In general, they can be divided into: stability injury and instability injury. The general vertebral body with mild compression bone new, transverse process fracture, etc. is a stable injury. However, when the connection structure of the spine is damaged, so that the original stability of the spine is damaged, and even cause compression of the nerve tissue, we usually classify this type of injury as unstable injury. This type of injury is usually treated by surgery. The purpose of surgery: i. Reset and decompression. That is, fracture and dislocation to give reset, restore the normal shape of the spine, remove the compression of the spinal cord and nerve roots of the broken bone, to create an environment for the spinal cord and nerve roots to recover. Second, stability. As the spine loses stability, even after repositioning, there is still a possibility of secondary displacement causing damage to the nerve structures, so internal fixation materials (plates, screws, etc.) should be applied to fix the injured part in its normal position. Third, fusion. Internal fixation materials alone are not enough to achieve permanent stability of the spine, so it is often necessary to implant your own or foreign body or artificial bone to allow the injured part to heal into one with the normal part to obtain permanent stability.