Distraction rod stabilization in the treatment of metastatic carcinoma.

Stabilization of the spinal column with Harrington distraction rods and acrylic fusion was the primary form of treatment in a select group of patients with metastatic carcinoma of the spinal column. Clinical criteria included patients in poor general medical condition with intractable pain originating from metastatic tumor involvement in the ventral components of the thoracic or upper lumbar spinal column and minimal evidence or absence of spinal cord compression. After stabilization, pain relief was almost total and sustained, and neurological status generally remained unchanged from preoperative findings without any evidence of improvement of preexisting abnormalities or occasions of rapid neurological deterioration. This form of spinal stabilization may offer significant relief of debilitating pain, lessen the risk of pathological fracture-dislocation of the thoracic or upper lumbar vertebral column, and reduction in the local compressive effects on the spinal cord caused by ventrally situated metastatic tumor.