ABSTRACT

This study aims to classify the thoracolumbar spinal injuries that were treated in Trakya University School of Medicine according to the recent Thoracolumbar AOSpine injury score and crosscheck the classified data with categorical modifiers such as gender, trauma type and treatment type.

AOSpine Classification System was used to classify thoracolumbar spinal injuries. Classes were compared with patients’ gender, age, trauma energy and treatment type. Pearson Chi-Squared test and Shapiro- Wilk test were used for statistical analysis.

The total number of patients was 248. One hundred fifty-two (61.3%) were male and 96 (38.7%) were female. One hundred and three (86.6%) patients had high-energy trauma and 16 (13.4%) patients had low-energy trauma in a total of 119 operated patients. Relationship between treatment type and AOSpine Classification System statistically significant. There was also a significant difference between trauma energy and AOSpine Classification System types.

As a conclusion, gender and trauma energy were found to have a relationship and higher energy traumas were most likely to cause spinal fractures. In addition, AOSpine classification system may be one of the confounding factors regarding the choice of treatment.

Keywords: Classification, spine, injury