Traumatic spinal cord injury due to human tower accident in catolonia

Retrospective case series.

The aim of this paper was to review the cases of SCI associated with human towers in the neurorehabilitation hospital Guttmann in Barcelona, clarify the mechanisms of these accidents and classify the injuries.

Data and history were retrospectively reviewed to detect SCI patients injured from human tower accidents admitted at the Guttmann Institute, Barcelona, in the period 1965-2017, from patient histories and interviews with patients and their relatives.

In total, five men with SCI acquired from "human tower" accidents were admitted between 1988 and 2017. All of them were at the base of the tower. They were all injured at cervical level, with very severe injury (AIS-A in two, AIS-B in one, and AIS-C in two). Two died due to pneumonia associated to mechanical ventilation at 4 and 10 years post injury.

Human tower is a rare cause of traumatic tetraplegia in Catalonia. People forming the base of the tower are at greater risk for injury. Moreover, in our case series, all accidents causing SCI occurred when the human tower was greater than seven levels and had over three participants at each level.