Different Traumatic Spinal Column Fractures and Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury: An Epidemiologic Study

Trauma and traumatic injuries are the most common causes of disabilities among the young population in developing countries. Besides morbidity and mortality, traumatic injuries can significantly decrease the quality of life and life expectancy of the victims.

Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury (TSCI) is an acute, traumatic lesion of the spinal cord. It usually produces economic problems that can emotionally and psychologically affect the patients. This study aims to evaluate spinal column fractures and TSCI in Iran.

In this study, we evaluated all of the cases diagnosed with TSCIs between 2012 and 2018. A total of 1014 patients were included in our study. Prevalence of spinal column fractures was evaluated and the percentage of each type of fractures was extracted. The need for surgery and the percentage of TSCI were also evaluated.

The most common cause of trauma was vehicle and road accidents (83.4%) followed by falling (12.7%). A total of 21 patients (2.1%) died due to injuries. The incidence of TSCI among patients with traumatic spinal column fractures were 62 cases (6.1%). Also, 67.7% of patients with TSCI underwent surgery. Furthermore, we found that the lumbar area received the highest incidence of TSCI (38.3% of all TSCIs) followed by thoracic spine fractures (27.4% of all TSCIs). Also thoracic and cervical spine fractures were mostly associated with mortality compared with other sites of spine fractures (47.6% and 38.1% of all mortalities, respectively).

In our study, most cases (83.4%) were injured by road accidents which indicates the low safety of vehicles and roads in Iran. Epidemiological features of spinal column injuries and TSCI vary among different societies due to different causes. So far, this study is the first one to evaluate different spine fractures and TSCI and other associated factors in the Iranian population.The results indicate a high incidence of thoracic and lumbar fractures and a higher mortality rate in thoracic and cervical fractures.