[Thoracopulmonary complications of fresh fractures of the thoracic spine with neurologic damage].

The number of thoracic injuries associated to traumatic fractures of the spine is increasing. The multiple trauma rate in this retrospective study of 253 spinal injuries with neurological damage, which needed admission to the Intensive Care Unit, was of 55%. Blunt chest trauma was found in 86% of the multiple trauma group, especially in combination with fractures of the upper and middle thoracic spine (up to 100%), while head injuries appeared in only 58%. Hemopneumothorax was diagnosed in 88%, pulmonary contusion in 48% of the cases, leading to a high rate of recidivating atelectasis and pneumonia. Emergent chest computed tomography should therefore be obligatory in thoracic spine fractures.