摘要Objective. To investigate the unique characteristics and treatment of thoracic spine fractures.Methods. Severty-seven patients with thoracic spine fractures were retrospectively reviewed. Of these, therewere 37 compressior fractures, 34 fracture-dislocations, 3 burst fractures and 3 burst-dislocations. Twenty-six pa-tients had a complete lesion of the spinal cord, 14 sustained a neurologically incomplete injury, and 37 wereneurologically intact. Fifty-three patients were treated nonoperatively and 24 treated operatively.Results. All patients were followed up for 2 ～ 15 years. None of the 26 patients with a complete lesion recov-ered any significant function. Of 37 neurologically intact patients, 13 had local pain although all of them re-mained normal function. Two of 14 patients with incomplete paraplegia returned to normal, 7 recovered some func-tion and 5 did not recovered.Conclusions. E ecause of the unique anatomy and biomechanics of the thoracic spine, the classification common-ly applied to thoracolumbar fractures is not suitable for thoracic fractures. Fusion and instrumentation are indicat-ed when the fractures are unstable, while patients with incomplete lesion of the spinal cord may be the candidatesfor supplemented decompression.