www.elsevier.com/locate/semss Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Adult measures of general health-related quality of life after thoracolumbar trauma Luciano Miller Reis Rodrigues n , Mario Lenza, Pedro Izoldi Pohl, and Paulo Appolonio Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, Sao Paulo, Brazil article info Keywords: thoracolumbar trauma quality of life systematic review spine fracture abstract Study design: Systematic review. Objective: The aim of the present review is to assess the main outcomes of patients who underwent interventions to treat thoracolumbar fracture. Summary of background data: In the literature, the parameters most commonly used to assess treatment success have been radiographic measurements, evolution of the kyphosis curve, and subjective parameters such as pain scores. Measures of quality of life and function, such as the Short-form 36 (SF36), Short-form 12 (SF12), and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) protocols, as well as the Roland–Morris Disability Questionnaire, are more frequently used and helpful to evaluate the effectiveness (benefits and harms) of treatment. Methods: This study is a literature review of studies that assess the quality of life and function of patients with thoracolumbar fracture. Results: The search strategy resulted in 111 published studies. Based on the analysis of the titles of these studies, 52 were selected for abstract evaluation. After evaluating the abstracts, 25 were included in the present review. Conclusion: The use of assessment questionnaires that utilize subjective parameters should be encouraged and increasingly used to aid in the selection of the therapeutic modalities that will provide the best clinical–functional outcomes, and a quality of life as close to normal as possible. & 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Spine fractures are becoming more common in large urban centers. The involvement of the thoracolumbar spine is very common, with an annual incidence ranging from 30 to 90 per 100,000 people. 1 The thoracolumbar transition accounts for approximately 40–60% of spine fractures, the cervical spine accounts for 30%, and the upper thoracic and lower lumbo- sacral regions combined account for 10–30%. 2,3 The majority of the affected patients are young and male, and among the most common causes are car accidents, high falls, injury from firearm projectiles, and sports injuries. 1,4–6 Thoracolumbar fractures result in neurological deficit in 8–35% of cases, depending primarily on the predominant causal factor, which directly influences the mechanism of injury. Thoracolumbar fractures associated with neurological deficits lead to major changes not only to the life of those patients but also to their families. 7 These lesions have a great social and financial impact due to the long process of rehabilitation and the loss of productivity that directly affect the patients’ quality of life in the short and long term. 8 The main forces acting on the vertebral spine are axial compression, lateral compression, flexion, extension, distrac- tion, shear, and rotation. There are also mechanisms of combined forces, and the most common are flexion–rotation and flexion–distraction. The axial compression force usually results in burst fractures; flexion results in compression fractures; lateral compression results in asymmetric or lateral 1040-7383/$ - see front matter & 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1053/j.semss.2013.07.007 n Corresponding author. E-mail address: Luciano.miller@uol.com.br (L.M.R. Rodrigues). S EMIN S PINE S URG 26(2014) 23 – 29