• Ryosuke Hirota, Yoshinori Terashima, Hirofumi Ohnishi, Toshihiko Yamashita, Noriaki Yokogawa, Takeshi Sasagawa, Hiroaki Nakashima, Naoki Segi, Sadayuki Ito, Toru Funayama, Fumihiko Eto, Akihiro Yamaji, Kota Watanabe, Satoshi Nori, Kazuki Takeda, Takeo Furuya, Atsushi Yunde, Hideaki Nakajima, Tomohiro Yamada, Tomohiko Hasegawa, Hidenori Suzuki, Yasuaki Imajo, Shota Ikegami, Masashi Uehara, Hitoshi Tonomura, Munehiro Sakata, Ko Hashimoto, Yoshito Onoda, Kenichi Kawaguchi, Yohei Haruta, Nobuyuki Suzuki, Kenji Kato, Hiroshi Uei, Hirokatsu Sawada, Kazuo Nakanishi, Kosuke Misaki, Hidetomi Terai, Koji Tamai, Akiyoshi Kuroda, Gen Inoue, Kenichiro Kakutani, Yuji Kakiuchi, Katsuhito Kiyasu, Hiroyuki Tominaga, Hiroto Tokumoto, Yoichi Iizuka, Eiji Takasawa, Koji Akeda, Norihiko Takegami, Haruki Funao, Yasushi Oshima, Takashi Kaito, Daisuke Sakai, Toshitaka Yoshii, Tetsuro Ohba, Bungo Otsuki, Shoji Seki, Masashi Miyazaki, Masayuki Ishihara, Seiji Okada, Shiro Imagama, and Satoshi Kato.
• Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Sapporo Medical University, South 1-West 16 291, Chuo-Ku, Sapporo, 060-8543, Japan. hirota.ryo@sapmed.ac.jp.
• Eur Spine J. 2023 Oct 1; 32 (10): 352235323522-3532.

PurposeTo investigate the impact of early post-injury respiratory dysfunction for neurological and ambulatory ability recovery in patients with cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) and/or fractures.MethodsWe included 1,353 elderly patients with SCI and/or fractures from 78 institutions in Japan. Patients who required early tracheostomy and ventilator management and those who developed respiratory complications were included in the respiratory dysfunction group, which was further classified into mild and severe respiratory groups based on respiratory weaning management. Patient characteristics, laboratory data, neurological impairment scale scores, complications at injury, and surgical treatment were evaluated. We performed a propensity score-matched analysis to compare neurological outcomes and mobility between groups.ResultsOverall, 104 patients (7.8%) had impaired respiratory function. In propensity score-matched analysis, the respiratory dysfunction group had a lower home discharge and ambulation rates (p = 0.018, p = 0.001, respectively), and higher rate of severe paralysis (p < 0.001) at discharge. At the final follow-up, the respiratory dysfunction group had a lower ambulation rate (p = 0.004) and higher rate of severe paralysis (p < 0.001). Twenty-six patients with severe disability required respiratory management for up to 6 months post-injury and died of respiratory complications. The mild and severe respiratory dysfunction groups had a high percentage of severe paraplegic cases with low ambulatory ability; there was no significant difference between them. The severe respiratory dysfunction group tended to have a poorer prognosis.ConclusionRespiratory dysfunction in elderly patients with SCI and/or cervical fracture in the early post-injury period reflects the severity of the condition and may be a useful prognostic predictor.© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

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