Bolukçu A, Erdemir AG, İdilman İS, Yildiz AE, Çoban Çifçi G, Onur MR, Akpinar E. Radiological findings of February 2023 twin earthquakes-related spine injuries. World J Radiol 2024; 16(9): 398-406 [DOI: 10.4329/wjr.v16.i9.398]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Ahmet Gürkan Erdemir, MD, Doctor, Instructor, Department of Radiology, Hacettepe University, Faculty of Medicine, No. 6/1 Adnan Saygun Street, Ankara 06100, Türkiye. a.gurkan.erdemir@gmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging
Article-Type of This Article
Retrospective Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Radiol. Sep 28, 2024; 16(9): 398-406 Published online Sep 28, 2024. doi: 10.4329/wjr.v16.i9.398
Radiological findings of February 2023 twin earthquakes-related spine injuries
Ayşenur Bolukçu, Ahmet Gürkan Erdemir, İlkay Sedakat İdilman, Adalet Elçin Yildiz, Gökçen Çoban Çifçi, Mehmet Ruhi Onur, Erhan Akpinar
Ayşenur Bolukçu, Ahmet Gürkan Erdemir, İlkay Sedakat İdilman, Adalet Elçin Yildiz, Gökçen Çoban Çifçi, Mehmet Ruhi Onur, Erhan Akpinar, Department of Radiology, Hacettepe University, Faculty of Medicine, Ankara 06100, Türkiye
Erhan Akpinar, Department of Radiology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, United States
Author contributions: Bolukçu A designed research and wrote the paper; Erdemir AG performed research and wrote the paper; İdilman IS, Yildiz AE, Çifçi GC contributed figures, analytic tools and analyzed data; Onur MR conceptualized the research; Akpinar E supervised the research.
Institutional review board statement: The study was conducted following the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki and approval for this retrospective study was obtained from the Institutional Ethics Board (SBA 24/077).
Informed consent statement: Informed consent was not obtained due to the retrospective nature of the study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There is no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: There is no data to be shared.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ahmet Gürkan Erdemir, MD, Doctor, Instructor, Department of Radiology, Hacettepe University, Faculty of Medicine, No. 6/1 Adnan Saygun Street, Ankara 06100, Türkiye. a.gurkan.erdemir@gmail.com
Received: May 27, 2024 Revised: August 20, 2024 Accepted: August 28, 2024 Published online: September 28, 2024 Processing time: 122 Days and 5.9 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
The February 6, 2023, twin earthquakes in Türkiye caused significant structural damage and a high number of injuries, particularly affecting the spine, which underscores the importance of understanding the distribution and nature of vertebral injuries in disaster victims.
AIM
To investigate the distribution of radiological findings of vertebral injuries in patients referred to a major tertiary center during the February 6, 2023 twin earthquakes in Türkiye.
METHODS
With the approval of the institutional ethics committee, 1216 examinations of 238 patients transferred from the region to a tertiary major hospital after the twin earthquakes of February 6, 2023, were retrospectively analyzed for spine injuries.
RESULTS
Spine computed tomography (CT) scans were performed in 192 of 238 patients with a suspected spinal injury, 42 of whom also had an magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In 86 of 192 patients (44.79%; M:F = 33:53) a spinal fracture was detected on CT and in 33 of 42 patients (78.57%; M:F = 20:13) a spinal injury was found on MRI. Of the 86 patients in whom vertebral injury was detected, fractures were detected in the Denis-B group in 33, Denis-C in 4, Denis-D in 20 and Denis-E in 11 patients. Among the vertebral bodies: 40 "compression fractures", 17 "burst fractures", 5 "translational dislocation fractures", 5 "flexion-distraction fractures" and 58 "prolonged forced fetal posture fractures" were detected. In addition, isolated transverse or spinous process fractures were found in eighteen vertebrae.
CONCLUSION
Our study highlights the prevalence and diverse spectrum of spinal injuries following the February 6, 2023 twin earthquakes in Turkey underscoring the urgent need for effective management strategies in similar disaster scenarios, and emphasizing the "prolonged forced fetal posture" damage we encountered in earthquake victims who remained under the collapse for a long time.
Core Tip: In the classification of damages from the earthquakes in Turkey on February 6, 2023, it was found that the injuries were predominantly crush-related rather than escape-related. Observations revealed that patients frequently sustained damage to the thoracolumbar regions due to prolonged fetal positioning under debris. It was determined that a significant portion of patients with spinal canal injuries had damage consistent with the thoracolumbar junction.
