Evolution of traumatic spinal cord injury in patients with ankylosing spondylitis, in a Romanian rehabilitation clinic

Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a chronic rheumatic disease that makes patients more likely to experience vertebral fractures and spinal cord injury, even from minor trauma. This study looked back at the records of 11 male patients with both AS and spinal cord injury who were treated in a Romanian rehabilitation clinic between 2010 and 2014. The study found that many of these injuries were caused by low-energy traumas and that infections were a common complication during their hospital stay.

• 1
  Low-energy trauma was incriminated in 54.5% cases.
• 2
  Five patients (45.5%) improved of at least grade 1 (AIS).
• 3
  The overall complications were mainly infections: symptomatic urinary tract infections (seven patients; 63.6%), pulmonary (three subjects; 27.3%) and spondylodiscitis (one case; 9%).