Epidemiological panorama of orthopedic spine pathology in Mexico

Abstract

Objective: To determine the epidemiology of orthopedic spine pathology in a national reference hospital in Mexico. Methods: Retrospective, observational and cross-sectional study, using the database and hospitalization census of the orthopedic spine service from January 2009 to December 2016. The data analysis was performed with SPSS version 22 measuring the central frequency and percentages. The demographic variables age and sex, and those related to the diagnosis, type of pathology, affected segment and degrees of affection were obtained. The sampling technique was non-probabilistic sampling by convenience of consecutive cases. Results: We analyzed 7,771 cases: 50.34% males, with a mean age of 53.51 years. The prevalence of the most frequent diseases in hospitalized patients was stenosis of the lumbar canal with 25.85% (1,834 patients), followed by lumbar disc herniation (23.12%), spondylolisthesis (22.63%), cervical spondylotic myelopathy (8.76%), lumbar pain and lumbosciatalgia (4.10%), cervical disc herniation (3.96%), primary infection (3.80%), loosening of material (3.16%), spinal tumors (2.53%) and cervical instability (2.04%). Conclusions: This is the largest series of cases of spinal pathology treated in a hospital in Latin America. The most frequent condition was the stenosis of the lumbar canal, the most affected segment was the lumbar, and the most affected age group was 51 to 60 years. The estimate is an increase in the incidence of spinal diseases, so it is necessary to identify the risk factors and the behavior of each disease for its prevention. Level of Evidence IV; Retrospective, observational and descriptive study.