Spine Compression Score Calculator

This calculator combines two established but distinct spine assessment frameworks with a few derived planning estimates, and they use different height-loss cutoffs for different purposes -- they are related but not the same system. The Genant semiquantitative grading system, published by Genant and colleagues in 1993, classifies a compression fracture's severity purely from the percentage of vertebral body height lost -- normal/borderline under 20%, mild 20-25%, moderate 25-40%, and severe above 40%. TLICS (Thoracolumbar Injury Classification and Severity Score), introduced by Vaccaro and colleagues in 2005, is a separate, broader injury-severity system whose real morphology component is normally assessed from fracture pattern on imaging (simple compression vs. burst vs. translational/rotational vs. distraction injury); this calculator approximates that morphology component from the same height-loss percentage using its own, coarser thresholds (roughly compression-pattern below 50% loss, burst-like at or above it) rather than reading true fracture pattern, then adds kyphotic angle change (as a proxy for posterior ligamentous complex integrity) and neurological status to reach a treatment recommendation of non-operative, equivocal, or operative management. Because the Genant cutoffs and this TLICS morphology proxy's cutoffs are not the same thresholds, do not assume a Genant grade translates directly into a TLICS morphology point value.

The Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) category is scored entirely independently from a separately entered 0-100 ODI questionnaire score and does not factor into the Genant grade or TLICS score at all -- it is reported alongside them as a separate functional-impact measure. Bone density (DEXA T-score) and the number of affected vertebral levels feed only the estimated annual subsequent fracture risk, not the Genant grade, TLICS score, or treatment recommendation. Cement augmentation (vertebroplasty/kyphoplasty) candidacy is flagged only when there is measurable height loss, meaningful pain, and no neurological deficit, since neurological compromise generally shifts management toward surgical decompression rather than a pain-focused cement procedure. This tool supports clinical decision-making but does not replace imaging review, a spine specialist evaluation, or a full TLICS assessment that includes actual radiographic PLC findings rather than this calculator's kyphotic-angle proxy.