Researchers conducted an ambispective cohort study with cross-sectional outcome assessment to identify predictors of health-related quality of life outcomes and re-employment after thoracic fractures and published their findings in The Spine Journal.
The study included adult patients treated for traumatic thoracic fractures with and without neurologic deficits from 1995 and 2008. The patients presented at a spine injury tertiary referral center. There were 126 patients with 135 fractures assessed with average follow up of six years.
The researchers found:
1. 53 percent of patients had complete spinal cord deficits on admission.
2. 78 percent patients received operative management.
3. Patients with thoracic fracture but without significant neurologic injury had similar SF-36 scores to the normal population at the six-year follow up.
4. Patients with more profound neurologic deficits remained inferior to normative data with the SF-36 scores at six years.
5. 57 percent of the patients were re-employed.
6. 25 percent of patients returned to previous job type.
7. Comorbidity was the only independent predictor of SF-36 scores.
8. Neurologic impairment and adverse events were independent predictors of the SF-36 score.
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