[Pathomechanisms of injuries of the spinal cord and spinal nerve roots in trauma of the thoracic and lumbar segments of the spine].

Apart from clinical examination, X-ray pictures after administration of contrastive medium to the subarachnoid space and axial computerized tomography were performed in 95 patients with traumatic damage of the spinal cord and the nervous roots. It was found that spinal cord lesion in 46.3 per cent of the patients was caused by the injury acting according to the shearing mechanism with the components of the torsional forces leading to dislocation of the vertebra. As a consequence of the crushing mechanism in the injuries of all three spinal columns, the spinal cord and the nervous roots were injured in 30.5 per cent of the patients. The neurological changes were caused by injury of the anterior and the medial spinal columns in 15.8 per cent of the patients, fracture according to the extension mechanism--4.2 per cent, compression of the spinal cord by the mass of nucleus pulposus--3.2 per cent of the patients. The risk of spinal cord injury increases in the patients with accompanying degenerative changes of the spine, growth disorders, the symptoms of local stenosis of the spinal canal.