Direct medical costs of traumatic thoracolumbar spine fractures

Abstract

For all patients, the costs of hospitalization days were the main cost driver. Although the length of stay for patients with unstable fractures and without neurological deficit who were treated operatively was shorter than for patients treated nonoperatively, the total costs were higher due to the additional costs of surgery. Surgical treatment must therefore be shown to give a better outcome in order to outweigh the costs. Future research should focus on the cost-effectiveness of operative and nonoperative treatment of patients with unstable vertebral fractures who have no neurological deficits, and take indirect costs and quality of life into account.