• Hirotaka Chikuda, Junichi Ohya, Hiromasa Horiguchi, Katsushi Takeshita, Kiyohide Fushimi, Sakae Tanaka, and Hideo Yasunaga.
• Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan. Electronic address: chikuda-tky@umin.ac.jp.
• Spine J. 2014 Oct 1;14(10):2275-80.

Background ContextThe incidence and relevant risk of ischemic stroke after cervical spine trauma remain unknown.PurposeTo examine the incidence of ischemic stroke during hospitalization in patients with cervical spine injury, and analyze the impact of different types of cervical spine injuries on the occurrence of ischemic stroke.Study DesignRetrospective analysis of data abstracted from the Diagnosis Procedure Combination database, a nationally representative database in Japan.Patient SampleWe included all patients hospitalized for any of the following traumas: fracture of cervical spine (International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision codes: S120, S121, S122, S127, S129); dislocation of cervical spine (S131, S133); and cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) (S141).Outcome MeasuresOutcome measures included all-cause in-hospital mortality and incidence of ischemic stroke (I63) during hospitalization.MethodsWe analyzed the effects of age, sex, comorbidities, smoking status, spinal surgery, consciousness level at admission, and type of cervical spine injury on outcomes.ResultsWe identified 11,005 patients with cervical spine injury (8,031 men, 2,974 women; mean [standard deviation] age, 63.5 [18] years). According to the types of cervical spine injury, we stratified the patients into three groups: cervical fracture and/or dislocation without SCI (2,363 patients); cervical fracture and/or dislocation associated with SCI (1,283 patients); and cervical SCI without fracture and/or dislocation (7,359 patients). Overall, ischemic stroke occurred in 115 (1.0%) patients during hospitalization (median length of stay, 26 days). In-hospital death occurred in 456 (4.1%) patients. Multivariate analyses showed that ischemic stroke after cervical spine injury was significantly associated with age, diabetes, and consciousness level at admission. The highest in-hospital mortality was observed in patients with cervical fracture and/or dislocation associated with SCI (7.6%), followed by cervical SCI without fracture and/or dislocation (4.0%), and cervical fracture and/or dislocation without SCI (2.6%). Unlike mortality, risks of stroke did not vary significantly among the three groups.ConclusionsThis analysis revealed that ischemic stroke after cervical spine injury was not uncommon and was associated with increased mortality and morbidity. Occurrence of ischemic stroke was significantly associated with age, comorbidities such as diabetes, and consciousness level at admission, but not with the type of spine injury.Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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