A four year experience treating incomplete thoracolumbar spine injuries in an East African country

BACKGROUND: Traumatic spine injuries are one of the most common causes of disability and mortality. OBJECTIVE: To assess post op neurologic status in patients with incomplete thoracic and lumbar spine injuries at two teaching hospitals in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. METHODS: Institution based retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted among 60 hospitalized patients in these hospitals from February 1, 2017–January 31, 2021. RESULTS: Forty five (75.0%) of the study participants were males. The mean age was 30.77 years (range: 12–65 year). Only 8(13.3%) patients were operated within 3 days of trauma. The most common injury site was the thoracolumbar junction (T11-L2) in 80.0%. Significant number of patients (56.7%) had sphincters dysfunction. Pedicle screw fixation with or without laminectomy was performed in 98.3%. After minimum six month follow up, 37(61.7%) patients had access to the physiotherapy. Thirty seven (61.7%) patients were non ambulatory (AIS B and C) at presentation, of which 29 (78.4%) were ambulatory on the follow-up. Overall, 54(90%) patients had neurologic improvement on the follow up and 37(61.7%) returned to work. Preoperative neurologic status and sphincter function were found to be significantly associated with treatment outcome with P value 0 .000 and 0.002 respectively. CONCLUSION: This study shows despite limited availability of post op physiotherapy, significant number of patientsreturned to work post-surgery. Preoperative neurologic function was an independent predictor of post-operative outcome.