Correlation between complications and injury degree in patients with acute traumatic cervical spinal cord injury

English Keywords:Cervical spinal cord injury  Injury degree  Complication  Correlation

English Abstract:

  【Abstract】 Objectives: To investigate the incidence of complications in patients with different degrees of cervical spinal cord injury(CSCI), and to explore the correlation of severity and complications. Methods: 325 CSCI patients suffering from acute spinal cord injury in our hospital from January 2005 to May 2009 were reviewed retrospectively. A total of 305 patients were selected, while 20 patients of hospital stay <7d were excluded in this study. There were 249 males and 56 females, with a mean age at injury of 45 years old(range, 14-83 years old), the interval between treatment and injury was 0.5h to 20d, and hospital stay was 7-45d(average, 23d). The pathology included high fall injury in 111 cases, traffic accident in 85 cases, fall injury in 75 cases, heavy weight injury in 15 cases and unknown injury in 19 cases. According to the ASIA classification: there were 132 cases of grade A, 26 grade B, 89 grade C and 58 grade D. The patients were divided into A(grade A), B(grade B), C(grade C), D(grade D) groups according to injury severity, and the incidences of complications in four groups were statistically analyzed. Results: A total of 13 complications occurred in 305 patients, which included 229 cases(75.08%) with constipation, 144 cases(47.21%) with heart rate decline, 137 cases(44.92%) with hyponatremia, 124 cases(40.46%) with high fever, 104 cases(34.10%) with respiratory dysfunction, 94 cases(30.82%) with blood pressure decreasing, 83 cases(27.21%) with hypoproteinemia, 72 cases(23.61%) with anemia, 70 cases(22.95%) with digestive dysfunction, 45 cases(14.75%) with hypokalemia, 38 cases(12.46%) with pressure ulcers, 28 cases(9.18%) with urinary tract infection and 9 cases(2.95%) with deep vein thrombosis. The incidences of constipation and deep venous thrombosis among the four groups showed no significant difference(P>0.05); while the incidences of remaining complications were different among the four groups(P<0.05). Except constipation, pressure sores, urinary tract infection and DVT, the incidence of other complications in group A was >group B, >group C and >group D. Conclusions: The incidence of complications is high for CSCI patients, which is positively correlated with the degree of injury except constipation, pressure sores, urinary tract infection and DVT, and the incidence of complications in grade A and B is significantly higher than grade C and D.