Cervical spine injuries in children: A review of 103 patients treated consecutively at a level 1 pediatric trauma center*
Section snippets
Materials and methods
We queried our trauma registry for all children admitted to Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, an accredited level 1 trauma center, between January 1991 and August 2000 with cervical spine injuries (ICD-9 codes 805.0 to 805.1, closed or open C-spine fractures without spinal cord injury; 806.0 to 806.19, closed or open C-spine injuries with spinal cord injury; 839.0 to 839.1, closed or open C-spine dislocations; and 952.0 to 952.09, cervical spinal cord injury without evidence
Demographics
There were 103 children admitted to Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH with C-spine injuries during the 9½-year study period. The admission rate was relatively steady at about 10 to 12 admissions per year. The mean age was 10.3 ± 5.2 years (range, 2 months to 19 years). About two thirds were more than 8 years of age. The age distribution (Fig 1) was bimodal with a peak incidence in the 13- to 15-year age group and a smaller peak around 5 years of age.
Discussion
The current review of 103 children admitted with cervical spine injuries to a level 1 pediatric trauma center over a 9½-year period represents one of the larger single-institution studies in the literature to date. The incidence of C-spine injuries in our institution over the study period was 2.2%, and this is consistent with the reported incidence of 0.65% to 9.47%.5, 6, 7, 8, 9 The demographics of our patient population were similar to those of most other series in the literature.5, 6, 8, 9,
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Address reprint requests to Rebeccah L. Brown, MD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Surgery and Pediatrics, Associate Director of Trauma Services, Children's Hospital Medical Center, Division of Pediatric Surgery, OSB-3, 3333 Burnet Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45229-3039.