Patients with combined pelvic and spinal injuries have worse clinical and operative outcomes than patients with isolated pelvic injuries analysis of the German Pelvic Registry

Abstract Background Pelvic fractures are often associated with spine injury in polytrauma patients. This study aimed to determine whether concomitant spine injury influence the surgical outcome of pelvic fracture. Methods We performed a retrospective analysis of data of patients registered in the German Pelvic Registry between January 2003 and December 2017. Clinical characteristics, surgical parameters, and outcomes were compared between patients with isolated pelvic fracture (group A) and patients with pelvic fracture plus spine injury (group B). We also compared apart patients with isolated acetabular fracture (group C) versus patients with acetabular fracture plus spine injury (group D). Results Surgery for pelvic fracture was significantly more common in group B than in group A (38.3% vs. 36.6%; p = 0.0002), as also emergency pelvic stabilizations (9.5% vs. 6.7%; p