Brief Review of Traumatic Fracture of the Pediatric Cervical Spine: KIDS Database— Poorman 2019

This is a brief audio review. In the article Traumatic Fracture of the Pediatric Cervical Spine: Etiology, Epidemiology, Concurrent Injuries, and an Analysis of Perioperative Outcomes Using the Kids’ Inpatient Database published, 2019 by Poorman and Colleagues, The outcomes and key points are as noted: From 2003 to 2012, pediatric cervical spine injuries have increased in incidences. The Charlson Comorbidity Index, presence of spinal cord injury, falls and sports injuries were correlated with surgery. Mortality and sustained spinal cord injuries decreased, and this may be attributed to improved emergency medical services and guidelines. The incidence of cervical spine trauma increased from 2.39% to 3.12%. Motor vehicle accidents were 50% of the causes. Infants and children fractured C2 at 43.1% and 32.9%. Adolescents fractured C7 at 23.9%. Upper cervical spinal cord injury was less incident compared to lower cervical spinal cord injury, 5.8% versus 10.9%. Notably lower cervical spine anterior cord syndrome was noted to have decreased. Overall mortality was 4.2%. Other complications included acute respiratory distress syndrome at 7.8%, and shock at 3.0%. Rates of cervical spine fusion surgery increased from the years 2003 to 2012, from 5.1% to 20.9%, p<0.001. Halo traction device rates decreased from the years 2003 to 2012, 17.6% to 8.6%, p<0.001. This was a Retrospective, cross-sectional with 11,196 patients who were patients with a mean age of 16 years old.

Poorman GW, Segreto FA, Beaubrun BM, Jalai CM, Horn SR, Bortz CA, Diebo BG, Vira S, Bono OJ, DE LA Garza-Ramos R, Moon JY, Wang C, Hirsch BP, Tishelman JC, Zhou PL, Gerling M, Passias PG. Traumatic Fracture of the Pediatric Cervical Spine: Etiology, Epidemiology, Concurrent Injuries, and an Analysis of Perioperative Outcomes Using the Kids' Inpatient Database. Int J Spine Surg. 2019 Feb 22;13(1):68-78. doi: 10.14444/6009. PMID: 30805288; PMCID: PMC6383458.