Epidemiology of Traumatic Spinal Injury: A 15-Year Retrospective Study of 1092 Cases

Abstract

Background: Spinal trauma is a well‑documented problem in developed countries but literature has been mute on this problem in developing counties. The purpose of this study was to elucidate epidemiological characteristics of spine trauma in our center over a 15-year period. Methods: All consecutive patients with acute spinal trauma who were admitted in our center from March 2003 to March 2018 were included. The analysis was focused on patient-related demographic characteristics, cause and mechanism of injury, level and type of injury, neurological deficit, associated injuries, management and outcome. All of the statistical calculations were performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Statistical analyses were conducted using the Student t-test and nonparametric tests (Mann-Whitney U-test, Kruskal-Wallis test). Values for p<0.05 were regarded as statistically significant and all confidence intervals were expressed at 95%. Results: A total of 1,092 patients with acute traumatic spinal injuries were managed in our trauma center. There were 74.3% males and 25.7% females with mean age 34.5 years. Young adults (age group: 18-39 years) were more affected with 58.9%. The leading mechanism of injury was compression with 39.2%. The most common cause of accident was motor vehicle collision accident (58.5%) followed by high-energy falls (32.6%). Six hundred eighty-seven patients (62.8%) had spinal cord injury, with 14.4% complete tetraplegia and 7.7% complete paraplegia. Overall, the use of operative treatment (64.8%) exceeded that of conservative treatment (35.2%). Conclusion: This study’s unique feature of delineating variables with statistical significance trending toward better management provides useful data to guide future researches, benchmarking, public health policy, and efficient resource allocation for the management of spine trauma.