Surgical treatment of a mine blast wound of the T11 vertebra with anatomical disruption of the spinal cord: a rare clinical case and a brief review of the current literature

Abstract

The experience of treating a patient with a mine blast wound of the T11 vertebra with an anatomical disruption of the spinal cord, bilateral hemo- and pneumothorax is presented. As a result of the injury, the patient suffered massive destruction of soft tissues with the formation of a full-thickness defect up to the vertebral bodies. The tactics of staged surgical treatment of the patient are described: elimination of fracture dislocation, fixation of the spine and plastic surgery of the soft tissues of the wound defect using the VAC system. A review of current publications devoted to the epidemiology and tactics of treatment of combat injuries of the spine and spinal cord is presented.

Keywords

• combat spine injury
• combat spinal cord injury
• treatment of combat spine injury
• combat injury
• spinal gunshot wounds
• vac system
• vac bandage