The effects of spinal cord injury on bone healing in patients with femoral fractures.

BACKGROUND

Orthopedic literature states that fractures of long bones, when associated with traumatic brain injuries, frequently heal with excessive callus and faster than normal. Few studies, however, have reported these phenomena being induced by spinal cord injury (SCI). Our objective is to compare the extent of callus and the rate of healing of long-bone fractures in patients with or without SCI. Subgroup comparisons were performed among the patients with SCI in terms of different levels of SCI.

METHODS

The final mean volume of callus formation and the rate of union of nailed fractures of the femur were determined radiologically in 22 femoral fracture patients with SCI (seven cervical, six thoracic, and nine lumbar spine injury) and compared with those in a group of 22 patients with similar types of fractures but without SCI.

RESULTS

The final mean callus volume in the fracture/SCI group was significantly higher than the fracture-only group (P < 0.001). The fractures in the fracture/SCI group united in an average time of 22.86 weeks compared with 25.04 weeks in the fracture-only group (P < 0.05). We observed 84.6% (11 of 13) of patients with cervical and thoracic SCI patients with accelerated fracture healing (cervical 6 of 7, thoracic 5 of 6), but only 44.4% (4 of 9) of patients with lumbar SCI appeared to show this phenomenon (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

These results confirm that SCI may be associated with accelerated fracture healing and enhanced callus formation. Furthermore, our study revealed a trend toward enhanced osteogenesis in cervical or thoracic SCI compared with lumbar SCI.