Abstract
Introduction
Injury to the spinal cord and the spinal column is relatively uncommon in pediatric population. It accounts for roughly 5% of the total spinal cord injuries. SCI in children younger 5 years are even rarer. Objective of the study was to analyze the incidence, type of spinal injuries, and epidemiological parameters in Indian children with spinal injury admitted at Indian Spinal Injury Centre (ISIC).
Patients and Methods
Hospital medical records were reviewed and patients with the diagnosis of cervical spine injury in age group 0 to 18 years admitted between 2002 and 2011 were included. The injury characteristics of patients were compared across three groups of 0 to 9, 10 to 14 and 15 to 18 years of age.
Results
A total of 152 spinal injury patients were included in this study, which represents 10% of the total pediatric trauma admitted at our hospital. Boys (78%) were more commonly injured than girls. Fall (51%) was the most common mode of injury followed by motor vehicle accident. Cervical spine was the most common level of injury with 34% of cases followed by thoracic region with 30% of cases. However, the proportion of both genders, mode of injury, and levels of injury were not different across the age groups (p < 0.05). Fracture was the most common pattern of injury in all age groups. SCIWORA was not very common (6.6%) in our study. Patients were divided according to ASIA scale in to complete and incomplete category. Outcome was measured on the basis of improvement in patient neurological level and their dependency level.
Conclusion
This retrospective study in Indian children is comparable with other international studies and provides important information regarding patient and injury characteristics of pediatric trauma cases.