The surgical results of thoracolumbar and lumbar burst fracture have been reported to be comparable between patients with and without fusion in a midterm follow-up. There is, however, no report comparing the results of fusion and non-fusion with a long-term follow-up. Therefore, a long term comparative study is still needed to focus on the issues of functional and radiographic outcomes, especially preservation of the motion segment in the long run, to determine whether fusion should be a routine procedure for surgically treated burst fractures of the thoracolumbar and lumbar spines. Therefore, we report herein a long-term comparative study of fusion and non-fusion based on our previous work, with an average 134 months of follow-up.

Inclusion Criteria:

• neurologically intact spine with a kyphotic angle more than 20o, decreased vertebral body height more than 50% or a canal compromise more than 50%;
• incomplete neurological deficit with a canal compromise less than 50%;
• complete neurological deficit;
• multilevel spinal injury or multiple trauma.

Exclusion Criteria:

• progression of the neurological deficit;
• a canal compromise still more than 50% in those who showed no improvement of the neurological deficit.

Patients suffered from burst fracture of the thoracolumbar and lumbar spine