Surgical Treatments and Long-Term Outcomes for Pediatric Patients With Lumbar Spinal Tumors.

Study Design: Retrospective case‒control study.

Objectives: This study aimed to report the effects of surgical intervention on spinal stability recovery and to assess the long-term outcomes of children and adolescents with lumbar tumors.

Methods: From January 2016 to June 2021, 42 pediatric patients with lumbar tumors were selected and separated into different groups based on the surgical method used (total en bloc resection (TER) group, n = 21; piecemeal resection (PR) group, n = 21; titanium mesh (TM) group n = 23; artificial vertebrae (AV) group n = 19). The clinicopathological characteristics, treatments and related outcomes were described in detail and compared between groups, with value ≤.05 indicating statistically significant differences.

Results: The average follow-up duration was 24.89 months, and the mean age was 14.89 ± 2.41 years. There were no significant differences in the mean operation time, average blood loss, complication rate, or length of hospital stay between the groups. The ODI, VAS and JOA scores at the final follow-up (FF) were elevated after surgery in all groups. The FF local angular drift (LOD) and lumbar angular drift (LUD) were greater in the TM group than in the AV group ( = .03, = .001).

Conclusions: After surgery, pediatric patients with lumbar tumors can obtain satisfactory spinal stability, effective relief of pain symptoms and substantial improvements in neurological function. There was no significant difference in the invasiveness, safety or timeliness between the 2 surgical methods, so TER is recommended due to its low postoperative recurrence rate and good local control. Spinal fusion in the AV group resulted in better spinal stability.