This study seeks to elucidate the influence of spinal conditions in the causation of serious spinal injuries in motor vehicle crashes. Data from 2017-2021 Crash Investigation Sampling System (CISS) and 2017-2022 Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network (CIREN) databases were analysed to identify cases with serious spine injury with and without spine degeneration documented as comorbidities.
There were 12,416,823 occupants, estimated from weighted data, with known injury outcome in the five years of CISS data; about 1.6% were seriously injured, and 0.40% had at least one serious spine injury. Of the exposed occupants, 9.6% had documented spinal degeneration. The relative risk of serious injury was 7.0 with spinal degeneration compared to without (p<0.0001). It was 16.2-times higher for serious spine injury. Of the available CIREN cases, 82 individual case subjects sustained at least one serious spinal injury and 18 of those had a documented pre-existing spinal condition.
Individual serious spine injury cases were examined to explore the unique factors of each spinal injury. Spinal degeneration was common in cases with serious spinal injury. The mechanical behaviour of the spine can vary when the tissue properties are altered due to degeneration and/or prior fusion, and its potential influence was documented in spinal injury causation scenarios.