Ankylosing spondylitis and Trauma Diagnostic approach and treatment

Ankylosing spondylitis is a progressively evolved  autoimmune disease that affects the spine and other  joints. With this present study we want to notice the  diagnostic traps and to examine prognosis parameters  with treatment particularities. During 2004-2011, we  evaluated 15 patients who were injured and suffered from this disease. Most of them were men and the main injury cause was falling. History reveals a  long disease  period with main symptom low back pain and lumbago.  Radiologically, all of them had an affected Bamboo-like  spine. 7/15 patients had fracture mainly in the thoracic  part of the spine and 6 of them had severe neurological  lesions. 4 of them were immediately treated surgically  in another Hospital. After 1-5 years, 12 of them were reexamined. In 10/12 results were satisfactory. According to literature and our limited experience, it seems that a deformed and osteoporotic ankylosing spine is liable to low force fractures with severe neurological lesions that can be misdiagnosed. Patients with ankylosing spondylitis and  trauma demand special treatment and careful diagnosis  for an unpredictable outcome.