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An Overview of Spinal Injuries due to Dive or Fall into Shallow Water: Our Long-Term, Double-Center Experience from the Aegean Coast
- Source :
- Emergency Medicine International, Emergency Medicine International, Vol 2021 (2021)
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Hindawi Ltd, 2021.
-
Abstract
- Purpose. We aimed to evaluate the demographic and clinical features of patients with cervical spinal injuries secondary to shallow-water diving and share our therapeutic outcomes. Methods. A retrospective study was carried out using data extracted from the medical files of 39 patients (3 females and 36 males) who were treated surgically (n = 29) or conservatively (n = 10). Demographics, clinical features, operative data, American Spine Injury Association (ASIA) impairment scales, and Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) results were noted. Results. The average age of our series (n = 39) was 31.59 ± 14.80 (range, 14 to 92) years. The vast majority of patients (n = 34, 87.2%) presented with isolated cervical trauma. At initial admission, neurological deficits were diagnosed in 22 (56.4%) patients. A single-level cervical involvement was noted in 18 (46.2%) patients, while 21 cases (53.8%) displayed injury involving multiple levels. The levels of cervical injury were C5 (n = 16, 41%), C6 (n = 11, 28.2%), C7 (n = 6, 15.4%), C1 (n = 5, 12.8%), and C4 (n = 1, 2.6%). A total of 22 patients had neurological deficits at admission. Surgery was performed using anterior (n = 21, 72.4%), posterior (n = 7, 24.1%), and combined anterior and posterior (n = 1, 3.4%) routes. Nine patients (23.1%) exhibited improvement in their neurological deficits. There were significant improvements in both the ASIA impairment scale and KPS results after treatment. Conclusion. Our data indicated that dive- or fall-related cervical spinal injuries are associated with profound morbidity. Reinforcement of primary prevention, identification of target population, and increased awareness on this topic are the key steps to minimize the frequency and severity of complications and to optimize therapeutic outcomes.
- Subjects :
- medicine.medical_specialty
Article Subject
Demographics
Diving Injuries
Target population
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Primary prevention
Internal medicine
Medicine
Risk-Factors
030216 legal & forensic medicine
Karnofsky Performance Status
RC86-88.9
business.industry
Prevention
Medical emergencies. Critical care. Intensive care. First aid
Retrospective cohort study
Cervical injury
Sci
Emergency Medicine
Spine injury
business
030217 neurology & neurosurgery
After treatment
Cord Injuries
Research Article
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Emergency Medicine International, Emergency Medicine International, Vol 2021 (2021)
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....73ad6f244bdc75534968782f73a31604