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Objective: To evaluate the clinical effects of thoracoscopy-assisted mini-open surgery for anterior column reconstruction in thoracic spinal tuberculosis. Methods: Fifty-eight patients, 35 men and 23 women, aged 39.2 (range, 19–60) years with thoracic spinal tuberculosis with an average kyphotic angle of 29.2° (range, 18°–42°) underwent thoracoscopy-assisted mini-open surgeries, including thorough debridement and anterior spinal reconstruction. According to the Frankel Grading system, preoperative neurological function was judged as Grade B in 3 cases, Grade C in 7, Grade D in 28, and Grade E in 20. All patients were followed up for an average of 4.6 years. Outcomes were evaluated retrospectively. Results: Surgery was accomplished successfully in all cases. The average operation time was 230 min (range, 180–320 min), the average intraoperative blood loss 570 ml (range, 350–1200 ml), and the mean drainage duration 3.6 days (3–5 days). Complications occurred in 19 patients (32.8%). Neurological improvement of one to three grades had occurred in 29 patients by final follow-up. The average correction rate of the kyphotic angle was 36.4%, and no obvious correction loss was detected during follow-up. No recurrent tuberculosis was found in the group. Conclusions: Thoracoscopy-assisted mini-open surgery provides a simple, safe, effective, and practical technology with minimal invasiveness for the treatment of thoracic spinal tuberculosis.

To investigate the use of anterior cervical discectomy and fusion with self-locking cages to treat multi-segmental cervical myelopathy.From April 2008 to March 2010, anterior cervical discectomy and fusion with self-locking cages were performed on 45 patients who suffered from multi-segmental cervical myelopathy, among of them there were 23 male and 22 female, aged from 32 to 67 years (average 53 years). Recording the Japanese Orthopedic Association (JOA) scores and SF-36 scores in the protocol time point, in order to investigate the clinical outcome, meanwhile, accumulating the pre-operation and postoperation X-ray films of cervical spine for measuring the height of intervertebral space, whole curvature of cervical spine and the rate of fusion by repeated measures analysis of variance.The mean follow-up time was 28.4 months (24 - 35 months). JOA scores ascended from preoperative 6.5 ± 3.1 to postoperative 13.4 ± 1.7 (F = 17.84, P = 0.001), the 7 scores of SF-36 improved significantly after operation (t = 1.151 - 12.207, P0.05), but mental health not. The fineness rate was 91.1%. Height of disc space ascended from preoperative (5.5 ± 1.8) mm to postoperative (8.3 ± 0.8) mm (F = 11.71, P = 0.043), globle curvature of cervical spine ascended from preoperative 5° ± 7° to postoperative 10° ± 14° (F = 234.53, P = 0.000), the change of the two index was significantly, respectively. Fat necrosis in one case and hematoma in another case at the bone donor-site were found, both of the two cases were cured by physiotherapy. All of the 45 cases (111 segments) achieved bone fusion.The use of anterior cervical discectomy and fusion with self-locking cages to treat multi-segmental cervical myelopathy possess many advantages as follows: satisfactory clinical outcome, minimally invasive, higher fusion rate, higher orthopaedic ability.