The effect of radiotherapy on the prophylaxis of heterotopic ossification in patients with spinal cord injury / Efeito da radioterapia na profilaxia da ossificação heterotópica em pacientes com lesão medular traumática

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2009

RESUMO

The goal of this study was to evaluate the effect of radiotherapy on the prophylaxis of heterotopic ossification (HO) after spinal cord injury (SCI). Nineteen SCI patients were studied (15 men and four women). The mean age was 30.4 ± 10.8 years (range 19 to 58 years). The most frequent causes of lesion were traffic accident (42.1%), fall (26.3%), shot gun (21%), diving (5.3%) and objects falling on the vertebral column (5.3%). Ten patients were tetraplegics (52.6%) and nine were paraplegics. Fourteen patients (73.7%) had complete lesion (Frankel A) and five had incomplete lesion (Frankel B). All patients realized initial scintigraphy until one month after SCI and showed negative results for HO. The patients were randomized in two groups: nine patients received single dose irradiation with 8 Gy on the hips (Study Group) and 10 patients were the Control Group. After six months of clinical and radiological follow up, one patient of the Study Group (11%) and five patients of Control Group (50%) showed HO. The frequency distribution of the development of HO in both groups showed no significant statistical difference, although there was lower incidence of HO in the radiotherapy group. We concluded that, with the number of patients studied, it was no possible to prove the efficacy of radiotherapy to prevent HO, although had a strong tendency for the statistical correlation

ASSUNTO(S)

traumatismos da medula espinal/complicações quadriplegia/complicações radiotherapy spinal cord injury/complications quadriplegia/complications heterotopic ossification/prevention &control radioterapia paraplegia/complications ossificação heterotópica/prevenção &controle paraplegia/complicações

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