Characteristics and In-Hospital Outcomes of Pediatric Traumatic Spinal Injuries in A Referral Trauma Center

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the characteristics and in-hospital outcomes of traumatic spinal injuries among children admitted to a local trauma center in Iran. METHODS: Patients aged 0-18 years who had been admitted to Shahid Kamyab trauma center for acute traumatic spinal injury (Mashhad, Iran) between 2011 and 2018 were evaluated retrospectively. Various demographic, clinical, radiological, and outcome variables were recorded and analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 127,300 trauma patients were evaluated and amongst them, 61 children had spinal trauma. The mean age was 11.1 and there was no significant sex preponderance (54% males). Most of the injuries were occurred in summer (34.4%) and the most common trauma mechanism was motor vehicle accidents (55.7%) followed by falling (36.1%). Almost all patients (95.1%) had vertebral fractures, which were in the cervical, thoracic, and lumbosacral area in order to decrease incidence. 67.2% of patients were managed non-surgically. The mean hospital stay was 8.9 days and 82.0% of patients had been discharged with normal motor function. CONCLUSION: Pediatric spinal trauma is less studied entity in the field of traumatology due to the lower prevalence of these injuries in pediatric patients worldwide. But our study shows a higher prevalence of such injuries in the pediatric population. Although controversial, the leading cause of these injuries is motor vehicle accidents. Fortunately, short term in-hospital outcome seems to be good in such injuries.