Epidemiology of Spine Injuries in its Own Material of Emergency Service Włocławek: A Retrospective Study

Abstract

Background. Spine injuries are serious medical and social problem, especially when it happens together with the defect of spinal cord, causing very often serious dysfunctions and permanent disability to the end of life.
Aim. Purpose of researches was the evaluation of frequency of back bone injuries occurrence on patients covered by care of the Emergency Service in Włocławek within years 2006–2009.
Materials and methods. Researches were performed based on documentation analysis of the archives of the Emergency Service Station in Włocławek within years 2006–2009. Applied research method was the retrospective analysis of medical documentation, and applied technique was quantitative analysis of documents. Population residing on area covered by activity of Emergency Service Station in Włocławek was included in the research. From the researched population, group of 244 people were selected, who suffered spine injuries, and then they were subjected to statistical analysis.
Results. Statistically significant were the dependencies between the reasons of spine injuries and: gender, backbone section, age, alcohol consumption. Statistically insignificant result referred to the dependence between the reason of spine injuries and season of the year and place of residence.
Conclusions. The most often reason of spine injury were traffic accidents. The most often the injury concerned the section of cervical spine. Men were subjects of spine injuries much more often than women. Spine injuries happened more often in municipal environment than in rural areas. Spine injuries occurred the most often in group 21-40 years. Spine injuries happened more most often in summer time. Number of spine injuries increases after consumption of alcohol. (PNN 2012;1(3):109-118)