Clinical features of cervical spine injury associated with chest injury / 中华创伤杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the clinical characteristics of cervical spine injury associated with chest injury by contrast with simple cervical spine injury.Methods A retrospective analysis was performed on records of 116 patients with cervical spine injury hospitalized from March 2009 to September 2014.There were 65 patients with simple cervical spine injury (simple injury group) and 51 patients with associated chest injury (associated injury group).Data recorded were the causes of injury, injury segment, treatment choices (tracheotomy rate, mechanical ventilation use and non-operative treatment), treatment time (operation rate at different time, time from injury to operation and length of hospital stay) , complications (electrolyte disorder, respiratory infection, respiratory dysfunction or failure, urinary tract infection, gastrointestinal bleeding and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome), and treatment outcome.Results The main cause of injury for the two groups was high falling.Lower cervical segment was the most likely to be affected.Significant differences were detected between the simple injury group and associated injury group with regard to tracheotomy rate (63％ vs.42％), rate of mechanical ventilation (41％ vs.25％), rate of early surgery (29％ vs.58％), rate of delayed surgery (69％ vs.30％), time from injury to operation [(7.2 ± 3.7) d vs.(3.1 ± 1.3) d], length of hospital stay [(22.6-± 5.5) d vs.(17.3 ± 3.7)d], electrolyte disorder rate (35％ vs.17％), incidence of respiratory system infection (55％ vs.35％), and respiratory dysfunction (43％ vs.25％) (P ＜0.05).After treatment, American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) scale for grade D was significantly lower in associated injury group than in simple injury group (25％ vs.39％ P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion Cervical spine injury associated with chest injury is severe injury, often requiring tracheotomy and mechanical ventilation, and demonstrates difficulties to be effectively treated in the early phase, long hospitalization, various complications and high morbidity.