Respiratory complications in acute traumatic spinal cord injury

Introduction: This study aims to describe the respiratory complications during the hospital stay following a traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI). Material and Methods: Descriptive retrospective study of patients with acute traumatic SCI (C5-D5) admitted in a reference unit between 2010 and 2015. Results: 177 patients were studied (87.6% male) with a median (p25-p75) age of 46.5 years old (31.9-65.0). Previous comorbidity was low (Charlson Comorbidity Index of 0 (0-2)) and 27.7% had smoking history. SCI were mostly cervical (72.9%) and 46.9% presented complete motor affection (ASIA A-B). The median stay in hospital was 56 days (37-79) and 52.5% of cases required an Intensive Care Unit (ICU). 59.9% of patients suffered respiratory complications: infections (32.2%) and respiratory failure (33.9%) were the most representative ones. Most patients recieved respiratory physiotherapy (72.3%) and 26.6% needed invasive ventilatory support. 4 patients died during their stay (2.3%) all of them due to respiratory failure. Respiratory complications as a whole did not present differences according to the level of injury (C5-C8 vs D1-D5). In cervical lesions, more respiratory complications were found if the motor affection was complete (p Conclusions: Most patients with acute traumatic SCI C5-D5 suffer respiratory complications. These complications cause morbimortality, are related to the level of injury and degree of motor affection and have an impact on the hospital stay.