Ankylosing Spondylitis: Special Considerations and Clinical Outcomes in Surgical Management of Spinal Fractures, Case Series and Analysis of Twenty Patients

Abstract Background Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) is a systemic inflammatory disease that involves axial skeleton the most. It causes ascending inflammation and thus rigidity in spinal column, from sacroiliac joint to the cervical region. Spinal column deformities beside vulnerability to trauma, alters the patients’ quality of life and put their neural elements to a great risk. Material and method: In this study, we reviewed data of twenty AS patients who underwent spinal surgery due to trauma, over 12 years in our center. Spinal radiologic indices beside clinical evaluation of quality of life and neurologic status were reviewed and mentioned. Results AS patients who were operated due to severe deformity and instability, correction of spinopelvic indices correlated with significant improvement in their quality of life and pain scores. Among those who were operated due to fracture and/or neurologic damage, clinical and neurologic improvement was significant. Conclusion Spinal trauma and mal-alignment in AS, correlates with neurological compromise and clinical symptoms such as pain and gate disturbance. Near complete correction of these indices improves patients’ quality of life. Traumatic spinal fractures in AS, should be considered unstable unless otherwise proved. Meticulous surgical stabilization in such cases usually indicates.