COMPARISON BETWEEN MODIFIED HONG KONG AND MODIFIED KALAFONG OPERATIONS IN TB SPINE PATIENTS- A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY IN CMH RAWALPINDI.

Background: Spine tuberculosis is common in Pakistan and this needs expert treatment to decrease morbidity. The objective of this study was to compare Modified Kalafong (MKF) and Modified Hong Kong (MHK) operations for spinal TB patients regarding neurological recovery and deformity correction. Material and Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted at Combined Military Hospital (CMH), Rawalpindi, Pakistan, on data from February 2012 to November 2020. According to the selection criteria and availability of data, 70 patients out of 90 consecutive patients handled surgically by MKF or MHK Operations were chosen for this research. Frankel grade system, Cobb’s technique and Bridwell’s criteria were used for assessment of results. Results: There were thirty-one cases of MHK and thirty-nine cases of MKF patients. Age, Neurological recovery, and Numbers of Vertebrae involved with TB were comparable across the two groups. In the MHK, the mean operating time was 6.12 hours, whereas in the MKF, it was 5.37 hours. When compared to the MKF, where the mean blood loss was 0.921 L, the MHK had a greater mean blood loss of 1.139 L. Deformity correction with MHK was 79.467 % against 58.40% via MKF, which was statistically significant (P 0.001). The MHK group had a much shorter mean time to fusion (4.56 months) than the MKF group (6.74 months), which is significant (P 0.05) statistically. Conclusion: Our study revealed significant differences between MHK and MKF spinal tuberculosis surgeries in terms of fusion time, blood loss and deformity correction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]