Clinical characteristics of pediatric traumatic spinal cord injury in China: A single center retrospective study
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 4, 2025
Establishing a Mouse Contusion Spinal Cord Injury Model Based on a Minimally Invasive Technique
Published on: September 7, 2022
An-Ni Tong1, Jun-Wei Zhang2,3, He-Hu Tang2,3
1Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Beijing Haidian Section of Peking University Third Hospital: Beijing Haidian Hospital, CHINA, Beijing.
Insights
Pediatric traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) is most common in girls aged 5-14, often without fracture, due to a dance move called "Xia-Yao." This highlights the need for targeted prevention strategies.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Traumatology
- Neurology
- Rehabilitation Medicine
Background:
- Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) in children presents unique challenges in diagnosis and management.
- Understanding the specific characteristics of pediatric SCI is crucial for developing effective prevention and treatment strategies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the clinical characteristics of pediatric traumatic SCI.
- To identify key demographic, injury, and etiological factors.
- To provide data for the understanding and prevention of pediatric traumatic SCI.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective cohort study design.
- Analysis of medical and imaging records of 351 children with traumatic SCI admitted between 2011 and 2020.
- Data collected included age, sex, cause of injury, neurological level, and impairment scale.
Main Results:
- The majority of patients were female (62.1%).
- Spinal cord injury without fracture or dislocation (SCIWORA) was prevalent (65.8%), particularly in girls aged 5-14 (77.9%).
- Sports, specifically the "Xia-Yao" dance, caused most injuries in girls, predominantly affecting thoracic levels (middle and lower).
Conclusions:
- Girls aged 5-14 are disproportionately affected by SCIWORA, often linked to the "Xia-Yao" dance.
- Thoracic level injuries are common in this demographic.
- Targeted preventive measures are essential to reduce the incidence of these specific pediatric SCI injuries.
Objective:
To investigate the clinical characteristics of children with traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) admitted to a research rehabilitation center between 2011 and 2020, with a view to generate crucial data for understanding and prevention of pediatric traumatic SCI.
Design:
Retrospective cohort study.
Setting:
The National Rehabilitation Research Center of China, Beijing, China.
Participants:
Medical records and imaging data of children with traumatic SCI admitted to the rehabilitation research center from 2011 to 2020.
Interventions:
Not applicable.
Outcome Measures:
Data on age, sex, cause of injury, neurological level of injury, impairment scale of SCI and details of spine fracture or dislocation were all collected and analyzed.
Results:
A total of 351 patients were included in the study, including 133 males (37.9%) and 218 females (62.1%). There were 231 cases (65.8%) without spine fracture or dislocation. SCI without fracture or dislocation (SCIWORA) was the most common in children between the age of 5 and 14 years (77.9%), and injuries caused by sports were the most common in girls (90.8%). Among sports injuries, those due to a special dance movement called "Xia-Yao" in Chinese, which involves hyperextension of the trunk, constituted the majority, with the neurological level of injuries located predominantly in the middle (34.6%) and lower (44.2%) thoracic levels.
Conclusion:
Girls between the ages of 5 and 14 years constituted the majority of SCIWORA injuries at the thoracic levels, which were caused mainly by "Xia-Yao". Overall, careful attention should be paid to prevent this kind of injury in children.
