Forty-five patients with fracture-dislocations of the spine were treated with Harrington instrumentation within ninety days of injury. Immediate reduction and stabilization could be accomplished with instrumentation and fusion without a substantial number of cmplications, and the patients could then be mobilized within a short time after the fracture-dislocation. However, there were six patients with kyphotic deformities related to the operation: four hook dislodgments; two pseudoarthrosis. In these six patients, the posterior bony fusion did not extend across all instrumented vertebrae.
Alignment of the spinal column were examined by the roentgenograms on a sitting or standing position. In the patients with inferior distraction hooks placed on the inferior lamina of the third or fourth lumbar spine, the lumbar lordosis were reduced.
