[Risk factors associated with lethality on patients with central cord syndrome]. / Factores asociados a la letalidad en pacientes con síndrome medular central agudo postraumático.

Background: Central Cord Syndrome is the most common incomplete spinal cord injury, and it represents 9% of all spinal injuries of the adult. Objective: to determine the risk factors associated with lethality or/and mechanical ventilation (MV) in patients with Central Cord Syndrome (CCS). Material and Methods: upon a retrospective cohort with patients with posttraumatic CCS we evaluated at the time of emergency admission and until the hospital discharge. The dependent variable was dead or MV. We calculated incidence, relative risk (RR) with CI95% and a multivariate model for the association of statistically significant variables by means of a risk coefficient model upon the variables that evidenciated tendencies towards risk. Results: From 101 patients with CCS, 85.1% with a severe medullary canal stenosis and 9.9% required MV; the mortality was 13.9%. The only risk factor associated with dead was the use of MV with an RR of 3.6 (CI95% 1.4-9.5); the risk with tendencies towards MV was being older than 60 RR 5.4 (CI95% 0.6-44.2). Other factors demonstrated a tendency towards mortality, but they were not statistically significant. Conclusions: MV is a risk factor associated with mortality, other factors evidenciated tendencies towards mortality; being older than 60, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, narrow spinal canal, more than 20 days of hospital stay and being intervened farther than 10 days from the accident. The incidence of mortality in our sample is greater than thus reported previously on other international articles. To know and identify these and other factors will let us identify patients with a greater risk of complications.

Introducción: el síndrome medular central es la lesión medular incompleta más común y representa el 9% de las lesiones medulares del adulto. Objetivo: determinar la letalidad del síndrome medular central (SMC) y sus factores de riesgo asociados a fallecer y/o uso de ventilación mecánica (VM). Material y métodos: cohorte retrospectiva en pacientes con SMC que acuden a urgencias y valorados hasta su egreso. La variable dependiente fue VM o muerte. Se calculó la incidencia, riesgo relativo (RR) e IC95%; se usaron modelos multivariados de asociación con las variables significativas mediante un modelo de cocientes de riesgos, y aquellas que presentaron algún grado de tendencia de acuerdo con el RR por encima de 1. Resultados: se recolectó la información de una muestra de 101 pacientes con SMC que recibieron atención en la unidad entre 2015 y 2021, 85.1% presentaron estenosis medular, 9.9% de pacientes requirieron VM, la mortalidad fue de 13.9%. El factor de riesgo asociado a muerte fue la VM con RR 3.6 (IC95%: 1.4-9.5); el factor con tendencia a VM fue ser mayor de 60, RR 5.4 (IC95%: 0.6-44.2). Otros factores evidenciaron tendencia a mortalidad o VM sin significancia estadística. Conclusiones: el factor de riesgo asociado a mortalidad fue VM, otros evidencian tendencia hacia mortalidad, como ser mayor de 60 años, hipertensión arterial, diabetes mellitus, estenosis medular por debajo de los 10 milímetros, más de 20 días de estancia hospitalaria y ser intervenidos más de 10 días posterior al accidente. La mortalidad en nuestra población se encuentra muy elevada en comparación con estudios internacionales previos. Conocer los factores de riesgo ayudaran a identificar a los pacientes con mayor riesgo de muerte o VM.

[Thoracic and lumbar fractures in adolescents. An eight-year study]. / Fracturas torácicas y lumbares en los adolescentes. Estudio de ocho años.

METHODS: In order to know the characteristics of these lesions in our environment and compare with those the adults, a transversal and descriptive study of adolescents between 12 and 18 years who were hospitalized for thoracic and lumbar fracture in two centers of high level trauma in our country for 8 years was performed. The variables studied were applied statistical analysis descriptive and correlation. RESULTS: They were found significant date by associating the causes of damage with associated lesions (p = 0.006) and the initial neurological damage associated with the final neurological damage (p = 0.000). DISCUSSION: They were registered seven teenagers with 10 fractures firearm, as rare cause of injury. An increase in the frequency of thoracic and lumbar fractures in adolescents with increasing age was found. The thoracic and lumbar fractures in adolescents caused by road accidents are associated with lesions in the chest and abdomen. And when are caused by falls are associated with lower extremity fractures. In addition, 13.5% of cases showed significant changes toward improvement in the initial neurological damage.