A four year experience treating incomplete thoracolumbar spine injuries in an East African country.

BACKGROUND

Traumatic spine injuries are one of the most common causes of disability and mortality.

OBJECTIVE

To assess post op neurologic status in patients with incomplete thoracic and lumbar spine injuries at two teaching hospitals in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

METHODS

Institution based retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted among 60 hospitalized patients in these hospitals from February 1, 2017-January 31, 2021.

RESULTS

Forty five (75.0%) of the study participants were males. The mean age was 30.77 years (range: 12-65 year). Only 8(13.3%) patients were operated within 3 days of trauma. The most common injury site was the thoracolumbar junction (T11-L2) in 80.0%. Significant number of patients (56.7%) had sphincters dysfunction. Pedicle screw fixation with or without laminectomy was performed in 98.3%. After minimum six month follow up, 37(61.7%) patients had access to the physiotherapy. Thirty seven (61.7%) patients were non ambulatory (AIS B and C) at presentation, of which 29 (78.4%) were ambulatory on the follow-up. Overall, 54(90%) patients had neurologic improvement on the follow up and 37(61.7%) returned to work. Preoperative neurologic status and sphincter function were found to be significantly associated with treatment outcome with respectively.

CONCLUSION

This study shows despite limited availability of post op physiotherapy, significant number of patientsreturned to work post-surgery. Preoperative neurologic function was an independent predictor of post-operative outcome.