Evaluation of the effectiveness of surgical treatment of tethered spinal cord syndrome of secondary origin in spina bifida: a systematic review

Objective. To present a literature review assessing the effectiveness of surgical treatment methods for tethered spinal cord syndrome of  secondary origin in spina bifida.

Material and Methods. The Pubmed, EMBASE, eLibrary, and Cochrane Library databases were searched for prospective cohort clinical studies published from 2009 to 2024 and evaluating the effectiveness of methods for correcting tethered spinal cord syndrome in spina bifida. The study was carried out in accordance with the guidelines for Preferred Reporting Items for writing Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA).

Results. During this period, 20 articles were published assessing the effectiveness of surgical methods for correcting tethered spinal cord syndrome. Of these, 15 are pragmatic clinical trials and 5 are randomized clinical trials. The average level of evidence is III.

Conclusion. Currently, it can be stated that there is an intra-expert consensus regarding functional radiological criteria for tethered spinal cord syndrome of secondary origin in spina bifida. However, the issue of the effectiveness of surgical intervention directly depends on the availability of objective methods for clinical assessment of the severity of functional deficit and the reversibility of morphofunctional changes in the nervous tissue. Despite the variety of clinical scales and questionnaires, there is no unified assessment system for neurological, urological and orthopedic deficits in patients with tethered spinal cord syndrome. In this context, functional MRI (spinal MR tractography) can be considered a promising method for objectifying the pathological process. However, the phenomena revealed during the examination are not fully studied and require further research.

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