Spinal cord injury as a component of polytrauma in road accident victims

Abstract

Background. Road traffic injury remains one of the most serious and complex types of human injury both in Ukraine and around the world. The purpose of the research: to determine the location and extent of spinal cord injuries as a component of polytrauma as a result of a road accident. Materials and methods. We formed a study array of 298 victims with spinal cord injuries from the array of road accident victims (1,696 people) who were treated in the emergency medical care hospital of the city of Kyiv, the emergency medical care hospital of the city of Chernivtsi, and three central district hospitals of the Kyiv region in 2020–2021. Formation of the research array was carried out by the method of irreversible randomization using the technology of random numbers. The selection criterion for inclusion in the study was the presence of spinal cord injury in road accident victims. At the same time, verification of the nature of the damage was determined at this stage of the study only by clinical and anatomical features, namely, the cervical spine, the thoracic spine and the lumbar spine. Results. It was established that 87.25 % receive damage to one part of the spine. Damage to all parts of the spine in road accidents occurs in 1.68 %. Among the combination of injuries of the spine, the combination of injuries of the thoracic and lumbar parts has the largest specific weight. Spinal cord injury occurs most often in drivers 37.05 %, the least common in pedestrians 30.82 %. According to the NISS, 51.02 % of victims receive a mild spinal cord injury, 39.99 % of victims receive a severe spinal cord injury. In victims with a severity of 25 points, damage to the cervical spine has the largest specific weight of 40.29 %, the smallest is the thoracic section of 28.70 %. In drivers and passengers, the cervical spine is most often damaged, 53.85 and 48.91 %, respectively. In pedestrians, the lumbar spine is most often injured, 47.19 %. The coefficient of combination of damage to several sections of the spine at the same time for drivers and passengers is 1.14, and for pedestrians — 1.6. Conclusions. Spine injuries occur in 17.98 % of victims of traffic accidents. Most often, the cervical spine is damaged in 46.64 %, thoracic — in 32.55 %, and lumbar — in 35.23 % of those injured as a result of traffic accidents.

Keywords

• traffic accident
• traffic injury
• vertebral injury
• polytrauma
• victims