Objective: To investigate the patterns of spinal cord injuries with multi-traumas- and clinical outcomes.
Methods: A retrospective review was performed on 132 patients with spinal cord injuries associated with multiple injuries that were treated at our department from August 1996 to July 2002. The age at presentation, causes of injury, associated injuries, the locations and degrees of spinal cord injuries, treatment, and clinical outcome were determined. The American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) Grades were adopted in this study.
Results: Among all patients, 94 were males and 38 were females, the ages ranged from 14 to 65 years, most of them were youth. Traffic accidents were the most mechanism causing injuries (62%), followed by fall (24.5%). Traumas on extremities constituted the first associate injuries (51.5%), head injuries constituted 32%, and thoracic injuries (30%). The main damaged regions of spinal cord were C1-2, C6-T1, T6-8, and T12-L1. The more serious the associated injuries, the poorer the outcome. Thirty four (26%) patients died finally. The major causes of death were respiratory failure and severe brain injuries. The neurologic defects improved partially in patients with incomplete spinal cord injuries while no obvious signs showed improvement in patients with complete spinal cord injuries.
Conclusion: The complexity of associated injuries will affect the treatment and prognosis of traumatic spinal cord injuries importantly. To understand the patterns and characteristics of this kind of multiple traumas is helpful to evaluating and treating these complicated injuries, and also may be helpful to the design of safety furniture and devices.