RESUMEN
Objective To study the clinical feature, diagnossis and therapy of open spinal cord injury. Methods A retrospective study was performed in 15 patients with open spinal cord injury including 14 males and one female, at age range of 15-46 years (mean 23 years). There were two patients with open cervical spinal cord injury, 11 with open thoracic spinal cord injury and two with open lumbar spinal cord injury. Injury causes included sharp knife injury in 12 patients, firearm injury in two and stick stabbing in one. According to ASIA scale, there was one patient at Grade A, two at Grade B, seven at Grade C, four at Grade D and one at Grade E preoperatively. Foreign bodies were found in the wound in four patients. There were three patients combined with spinous process fracture, eight with vertebral plate fracture and five with vertebral body fractures. All 15 patients were treated by emergency management including vertical canal exploration, hematoma debridement or foreign body removal. Results Postoperative complications included cerebrospinal fluid leakage in two patients and wound infection ( without spinal cord infection) in one. There were different degrees of neural functional recovery in five patients. The post-operation ASIA scale: one patient at Grade A, three at Grade C, 10 at Grade D and one at Grade E,with no patient at Grade B. Conclusions For open spinal cord injury, emergency operation is necessary under adequate preoperative preparation. Preoperative identification of foreign bodies, exploration and decompression are beneficial to spinal cord function recovery and reduction of the incidence rate of postoperative complications like infection or hemorrhage.