[An analysis of conservative therapy in 376 patients with paraplegia after injuries of the spine].

In 376 cases of paraplegia after lesions of the vertebral column which had been treated exclusively by conservative methods we were interested in changes of the neurological status, if any, during inpatient treatment, as well as in the rate of complications, the stability of the vertebral column and the immobilisation time and period of hospitalisation. 70.7% of the patients were primarily completely paralysed at admission to hospital; 6.4% of them displayed neurological improvement, compared to 49.5% of the primarily not fully paralysed patients. With decreasing height of the site of lesion of the vertebral column the rate of neurological improvement increased to a statistically significant extent. The neurological status did not deteriorate in any of the patients. Instabilities of the vertebral column were rare in our patient material, occurring in only 0.8% of the exclusively conservatively treated lesions of the thoracic and lumbar vertebral column. The average rate of complications was 13.9%, the immobilisation time approx. 10.8 weeks and the hospitalisation period on the average 25.6 weeks.