en تروما Trauma پژوهشي Research <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:12px;"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><b><span lang="EN-GB">Introduction:</span></b> Spinal cord injuries caused by trauma are one of the most disabling public health challenges of society. This study was conducted to investigate the epidemiology of spinal cord injuries in the forensic medicine referees of Mashhad, Iran, during one year.<br> <b><span lang="EN-GB">Methods:</span></b> This retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted at Razavi Khorasan Forensic Medicine Center (Iran) in 2021. The hospital records of the patients related to intensive care units, emergency, orthopedics, neurosurgery, and rehabilitation departments, which were available in the forensic medical records of the patients, were reviewed. The sampling method in this research was considered a one-year census. Data analysis was performed using chi-square using SPSS software (version 26).<br> <b><span lang="EN-GB">Results:</span></b> This study examined 52 cases of spinal cord injury with a mean age of 36&plusmn;12 years, 32.7% of whom were women and 67.3% were men. The most common injury mechanisms were, respectively, traffic accidents (77.60%), work accidents (12.20%), and struggle (5.8%). A total of 37.17% of patients had injuries in the thoracic vertebrae, 31.85% in the lumbosacral, and 30.97% in the cervical vertebrae. The most frequently damaged vertebra was the twelfth thoracic vertebra (10.62%), followed by the second lumbar vertebra (9.73%) and the fifth cervical vertebra 8.85%). After one year of injury, 65.4% of the patients had bedsores. In general, 48.8% of the patients were heads of households and were responsible for caring for 1 to 5 people.<br> <b><span lang="EN-GB">Conclusion:</span></b> Most of the spinal cord injured patients are young men of working and production age who need continuous care and supportive measures after injury. The costs of caring for these patients are high, and after receiving the initial compensation, they do not have any further financial or social support. Moreover, the caregivers of these people need training on how to care for the patient to prevent complications such as bedsores and infections. Knowledge of epidemiological factors can facilitate the design and planning of ways to prevent such injuries.</span></span></div> Epidemiology, Nervous system, Spinal cord injuries, Trauma, Traffic accidents 24 29 http://jsurgery.bums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-432-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Hamid Attaran hmdattaran@yahoo.com 100319475328460011210 100319475328460011210 Yes Legal Medicine Research Center, Iranian Legal Medicine Organization, Tehran, Iran Akram Fotovat akfo_1400_41@yahoo.com 100319475328460011211 100319475328460011211 No Legal Medicine Research Center, Iranian Legal Medicine Organization, Tehran, Iran Hanieh Ganjali haniehganjali.md@gmail.com 100319475328460011212 100319475328460011212 No Legal Medicine Research Center, Iranian Legal Medicine Organization, Tehran, Iran Mahsa Khodabande Shahraki Mahsakhodabande@gmail.com 100319475328460011213 100319475328460011213 No Legal Medicine Research Center, Iranian Legal Medicine Organization, Tehran, Iran Parmida Attaran bluer3762@gmail.com 100319475328460011214 0009-0004-8663-7404 No Student Research Committee, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran