Spinal cord injuries from road traffic crashes in southeastern Iran

To analyze the data of patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) induced by road traffic crashes in southeastern Iran for better understanding the pattern of these injuries and therefore for better designing health system planning.

In this historical cohort study, the patients who had been transferred to Level I trauma center in southeastern Iran due to road traffic accidents with radiographic documented SCI were evaluated.

Among 64 patients with SCI, 38 patients (59.4%, 36 males and 2 females, aged 27.42 years+/-9.44 years on average) were injured by road traffic accidents. Car and motorcycle accidents were responsible for 26 cases (68.4%) and 12 cases (31.6%), respectively. And 31 patients (81.6%) had complete SCI. Conus medularis (T12-L2) was the most affected level.

Results are discussed in terms of preventive measures, specifically those concerning the use of restraint and helmet and driving behavior. This study should be extended nationally to gain a larger case series so that the SCI risk of particular vehicle configurations, considering other crash factors, can be more precisely quantified and the characteristics for low occurrence of SCI can be more precisely identified.