OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to characterize clinical aspects and to assess situations related to spinal trauma at the Hospital das Clinicas da Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto between 2007 and 2008. METHOD: we retrieved medical charts International Classification of Diseases codes of spinal fracture, except those caused by gunshots. From 190 patients who were studied, 22 died, 96 were interviewed either by telephone or personally, and 94 had the information collected only from medical charts. RESULTS: fractures occurred mainly in young man, in cervical levels in 27% of the patients, and were complete in the majority of the cases (AIS A: 57.7%). The main etiology of trauma were car and motorcycle accidents (52%). In the interviews, patients reported lack of attention or disrespect to driving and security rules as the most important factor associated to trauma. Many patients said they did not know the risk in such situations and the consequences of the fractures in the spine or spinal cord injury. CONCLUSION: this study identified young man as the group most affected by spinal cord injury. Among the most frequent reasons to the trauma according to patients' oppinions were lack of attention or disrespect to security and driving rules. These data permitted the development of a series of preventive actions to spine fractures and spinal cord injuries focused in the specific social group and riskiest behaviors.
Spinal injuries; Spinal cord injuries; Accident prevention; Spinal fractures
