OBJECTIVE: to analyze the management of a series of adolescents with penetrating spinal cord injuries (pSCI) and comparing to literature, provide the best therapeutic strategy to these patients. METHODS: retrospective evaluation of medical reports of ten consecutive cases of pSCI, nine from the male sex and one from the female. All the patients were under 18 years old. The clinical history, neurologic evaluation and the images exams were analyzed. The therapeutic management varied between surgery and conservative. RESULTS: the average age was 16 years old (form 13 to 18 years). The median time spent at the first hospitalization was 11 days (from 4 to 180 days). Four patients were submitted to laminectomy, one to wound debridement and five to conservative treatment. Only one patient submitted to laminectomy had neurological improvement. No patients presented in this series showed, in the follow-up, wound infection or spinal instability. CONCLUSION: secondary spinal cord injuries are less relevant to the neurological status, which means that the sequelae are established at hospital admission in most of the cases. There was a clear predominance of pSCI in male adolescents. There was no significant difference between the cases that were managed clinically or surgically, concerning the neurological outcome, infection and instability. The therapy must be individualized, the clinical management must not be neglected and surgery must be considered only in specific cases.
Spinal cord injuries; Spinal cord injuries; Wounds, stab; Adolescent
