EpidemiologIy of Traumatic Spinal Injury in North of Iran: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background & Aim: Acute injuries of the spine and spinal cord are causing the greatest amount of disability. They produce highcost outcomes for patients and society psychologically and economically. Knowing the epidemiology of these injuries play animportant role in planning for prevention and conservative treatment. But now, we have little information about this in our country.The aim of this study was to determine epidemiology of spinal injury in Sari Imam Khomeini hospital, main trauma center ofMazandaran, an Iranian province.Methods & Materials/Patients: The present cross-sectional study was conducted on all cases of traumatic spine injury, who wereadmitted in Sari Imam Khomeini hospital, main trauma center of Mazandaran, during 2012-2014. Checklist included demographiccharacteristics (age, gender, location), mechanism of injury of the spine, the level of injury detected by radiologic imaging andMRI and CT scans, the scoring systems for assessing the severity of injury that were American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA)scale and The Injury Severity Score.Results: Among a total of 906 cases, 57.8% (n=523) were male and 42.2% ( (n=383) were female. Male/Female ratio was 1.37:1.The most common age group at which spinal injury occurred in males was 25-44 years-old, and in females was 45-64 years-old(P=0.044). The most frequent causative mechanism of trauma was traffic accidents (especially motorcycle-caused accidents). Themost common injury in spine fracture was compression and burst types. Among 93 patients with abnormal findings on neurologicalexamination, 45 of them had complete spinal cord injury (class A of ASIA) and 48 of them had incomplete spinal cord injury (classB, C, D of ASIA).Conclusion: Motor vehicles accidents are the most common cause of spine and spinal cord injury in Mazandaran,a region of theNorth of Iran. The incidence of spinal cord injury is high if ISS is more than 12.

کلیدواژه ها:

Epidemiology ، Spinal Injuries ، Iran ، Mazandaran