Acute Traumatic Quadriplegia in Adults: Predictors of Acute in-Hospital Mortality

Guidelines for neuroprognostication in adults with traumatic spinal cord injury

BACKGROUND

Traumatic spinal cord injury (tSCI) impacts patients and their families acutely and often for the long term. The ability of clinicians to share prognostic information about mortality and functional outcomes allows patients and their surrogates to engage in decision-making and plan for the future. These guidelines provide recommendations on the reliability of acute-phase clinical predictors to inform neuroprognostication and guide clinicians in counseling adult patients with tSCI or their surrogates.

METHODS

A narrative systematic review was completed using Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation methodology. Candidate predictors, including clinical variables and prediction models, were selected based on clinical relevance and presence of an appropriate body of evidence. The Population/Intervention/Comparator/Outcome/Timing/Setting question was framed as "When counseling patients or surrogates of critically ill patients with traumatic spinal cord injury, should < predictor, with time of assessment if appropriate > be considered a reliable predictor of < outcome, with time frame of assessment >?" Additional full-text screening criteria were used to exclude small and lower quality studies. Following construction of an evidence profile and summary of findings, recommendations were based on four Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation criteria: quality of evidence, balance of desirable and undesirable consequences, values and preferences, and resource use. Good practice recommendations addressed essential principles of neuroprognostication that could not be framed in the Population/Intervention/Comparator/Outcome/Timing/Setting format. Throughout the guideline development process, an individual living with tSCI provided perspective on patient-centered priorities.

RESULTS

Six candidate clinical variables and one prediction model were selected. Out of 11,132 articles screened, 369 met inclusion criteria for full-text review and 35 articles met eligibility criteria to guide recommendations. We recommend pathologic findings on magnetic resonance imaging, neurological level of injury, and severity of injury as moderately reliable predictors of American Spinal Cord Injury Impairment Scale improvement and the Dutch Clinical Prediction Rule as a moderately reliable prediction model of independent ambulation at 1 year after injury. No other reliable or moderately reliable predictors of mortality or functional outcome were identified. Good practice recommendations include considering the complete clinical condition as opposed to a single variable and communicating the challenges of likely functional deficits as well as potential for improvement and for long-term quality of life with SCI-related deficits to patients and surrogates.

CONCLUSIONS

These guidelines provide recommendations about the reliability of acute-phase predictors of mortality, functional outcome, American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale grade conversion, and recovery of independent ambulation for consideration when counseling patients with tSCI or their surrogates and suggest broad principles of neuroprognostication in this context.

Analysis of the risk factors for tracheostomy and decannulation after traumatic cervical spinal cord injury in an aging population

STUDY DESIGN

Retrospective study.

OBJECTIVES

To investigate the risk factors associated with tracheostomy after traumatic cervical spinal cord injury (CSCI) and to identify factors associated with decannulation in an aging population.

SETTING

Advanced critical care and emergency center in Yokohama, Japan.

METHODS

Sixty-five patients over 60 years with traumatic CSCI treated between January 2010 and June 2017 were enrolled. The parameters analyzed were age, sex, American Spinal Injury Association impairment scale score (AIS) at admission and one year after injury, neurological level of injury (NLI), injury mechanism, Charlson's comorbidity index (CCI), smoking history, radiological findings, intubation at arrival, treatment choice, length of intensive care unit (ICU) stay, tracheostomy rate, improvement of AIS, decannulation rate, and mortality after one year.

RESULTS

The study included 48 men (74%; mean age 72.8 ± 8.3 years). Twenty-two (34%), 10 (15%), 24 (37%), and 9 (14%) patients were classified as AIS A, B, C, and D, respectively. The tracheostomy group showed significantly more severe degree of paralysis, more patients with major fractures or dislocations, more operative treatment, longer ICU stay, poorer improvement in AIS score after one year and higher rate of intubation at arrival. AIS A at injury was the most significant risk factor for tracheostomy. The non-decannulation group had a significantly higher mortality. The risk factor for failure of decannulation was CCI.

CONCLUSIONS

Risk factors for tracheostomy after traumatic CSCI were AIS A, operative treatment, major fracture/dislocation, and intubation at arrival. The only factor for failure of decannulation was CCI.