RESUMEN
Introduction: Trauma is ranked four as being a lethal disease. Spinal trauma and the spinal cord injuries arising from the trauma are the cause of 3%death rate. Concomitant spinal cord injuries may lead to neurological deficit and socio-economic problems
Objective: Determining the relative frequency of spinal cord fractures, types and some related factors as recorded in the emergency ward of Poursina hospital in Rasht from 2001 to 2003
Materials and Methods: In a descriptive cross-sectional survey performed on the hospital archive, the patients confined to be suffering from the fracture based on imaging studies from 2001-2003 were included in the study. Exclusion criteria were: mismatch between the report of imaging studies and physician diagnosis, absence of the report in the patients' records and leaving the hospital before making a diagnosis. Variables such as age, sex, trauma mechanism, and place of lesion were extracted and registered in a special form designed for this purpose
Results: After dully studying the bulk of files, 215 in number, 41 cases were omitted from the study. About 71.8% were male. The mean age was 40.75 +/- 15.55 and 23% of them were in the age group of 21-30 years. Burst fracture was the most common fracture type. The majority of accidents were due to falling from height [63.3%].The most common fractures occurred in the lumbar area at the l1 level [60%], thoracic area at the level of T12 [64%] and cervical at the level of C7[40%]
Conclusion: Regarding to the high frequency of spinal injuries followed by falling, we can decline these injuries by paying attention to safety issues