Epidemiological and Clinical Features of Cervical Column and Cord Injuries; A 2-Year Experience from a Large Trauma Center in Southern Iran.

OBJECTIVE To describe the epidemiological characteristics of patients with cervical spine injury admitted to Rajaee hospital, Shiraz, Iran. METHODS This cross-sectional study includes all patients admitted with impression of cervical column injury with or without cervical cord injury from October 2009 to March 2012 to our level I trauma center in Shiraz. We recorded the patients' characteristics including age, sex, marital status, mechanism of injury, level of injury, concomitant injury, treatment(non-operative or operative) and clinical outcome. The data were described and compared with the international literature. RESULTS Among 261 patients referred with impression of spinal cord injury, the diagnosis of spinal column injury (with or without spine cord injury) was confirmed in 206 patients. The mean age of patients was 37.2±15.9 years with Male/Female ratio of 3:1. Car turn-over  and car-collisions were the leading causes of injury. The most common spine fracture was C6 vertebra involving 60 (29.1%) patients. Fracture of upper and lower extremities were the most concomitant fractures observed in 31(15.1%) patients. Open surgery was performed in 65(31.6%).Mortality rate was 7.3% (15 patients).Patients with brain, lung and cord injuries had increased risk of death, among 15 deaths,9 patients had brain injury, 5 individuals had lung injury and 10 patients suffered from cord injury. CONCLUSION Cervical spine injuries mostly affect young males, and comprise 206 (10%) cases out of 2100 spine injuries in our country. Preventive measures should be taken to reduce cervical spine injuries especially in young age group.