Aim: To analyse the epidemiology of spinal injuries presented in our tertiary referral centre.

Materials and Methods: 202 patients who sustained traumatic spinal column injury were admitted in our tertiary referral centre from 1999 to mid 2002. The case notes were looked at for epidemiological details.

Results: Of 202 patients, 136 were male and the rest were females. Both in males and females, we found 2 peaks in the age incidence of spinal cord injuries. First peak was noted between the age group of 18–30 years and the second peak was noted above 60 years. We classified the spinal column injuries into upper cervical, lower cervical, thoracic, dorso-lumbar, lumber and sacral. Lower cervical and cervico-dorsal junction fractures constituted 48% of the spectrum of spinal column fractures. Significant soft tissue injury was noted in 12 patients. Multiple level spinal injuries were present in 16 patients (7.9%). Although road traffic accidents were responsible for 32% of the fractures, domestic falls also contributed to 30.6% of the fractures. 50%of these domestic falls occurred in patients above 60 years of age. We classified the falls into two categories; those from a height above 6 feet were classed as severe falls, which occurred in 65.6% of cases. Below this height the falls were classed as low falls. 71% of the patients who sustained low falls were above 60 years. Sporting accidents caused 19.8% of the spinal fractures. 27% of them are due to diving. Significantly self-harm was found to be a cause of spinal fracture in 3 patients. 67.8% (137) of the patients sustained neurological injury. Incomplete spinal cord injury was present in 86 patients and complete injury in 51 patients. Tetraplegia and tetraparesis was noted in 89 patients where as paraplegia and paraparesis was noted in 48 patients. 26 patients required ventilation at the time of admission. 63 patients sustained polytrauma of which chest injury was found in one third of the poly traumatised patients.

Conclusion: From our observations, we find that there is an increasing trend of elderly population who are more susceptible for spinal trauma. Traditional high velocity trauma and high falls though still contribute a significant proportion of spinal injuries, equal proportions of spinal fractures are caused by low falls commonly seen in elderly patients. These epidemiological trends will have implications on treatment, rehabilitation and outcome of spinal injuries.