We present a series of 14 patients presenting to the senior surgeon’s practice who sustained thoracolumbar burst fractures, with no neurological loss. The patients were treated with early mobilisation and extension bracing. We assessed their pain and disability, using VAS and ODI, and their fracture morphology. There was no statistical correlation between any measured parameter of fracture morphology and pain or disability. There was correlation between age at injury, time elapsed from injury and psychosocial aspects of the injury and the subsequent disability.

The measured disability was low and compared favourably with the results of studies of patients treated surgically.

We continue to treat all our neurologically intact burst fractures by early mobilisation and bracing, and take no account of fracture morphology in our decision making.