Incidence of spinal cord injuries in Plovdiv and Plovdiv region, Bulgaria.

This retrospective study was conducted to evaluate the incidence of spinal cord injuries in Plovdiv and Plovdiv region, Bulgaria. The study material comprised 980 patients treated over a period of 10 years (1983-1992) in the Clinics of Traumatic and Orthopaedic Surgery and Neurosurgery, University of Medicine, Plovdiv, which are the only therapeutic establishment in this region with a population of 750,000 to admit and treat this type of injury. Conservative treatment was applied in 34.46% of the patients using various methods: the method of Gorinevska-Dreving, immobilisation in either a plaster jacket or minerva depending on the injury site, the reclination methods of Davis-Erie or Watson-Jones, cranial extension by Crutchfield. Operative treatment also was used and included posterior stabilisation with or without bone plastics, anterior vertebrodesis in the cervical and thoracolumbar regions from a transpleural and retroperitoneal approaches and anterior vertebrodesis with a partial or complete replacement of the vertebral body.