Factors associated with gait outcomes in patients with traumatic lumbosacral plexus injuries

Lumbosacral plexus injuries usually occur in patients with severe, multiple traumas requiring intensive care, affecting gait function. The purpose of the present study was to identify the initial factors associated with gait outcome in lumbosacral plexus injuries caused by traumas.

We retrospectively identified 664 patients with pelvic fractures caused by trauma between 2006 and 2017. The lumbosacral plexus injuries were electrodiagnostically confirmed in 30 patients (4.5%). Demographic, injury-related, fracture-related and electrodiagnostic factors were compared between patients with long-term unassisted gait outcomes to those with assisted gait outcomes, with an average of 27 months elapsing after the trauma.

Eleven patients (36.7%) remained in the assisted gait group during the follow-up period. Complex pelvic trauma, rather than the severity of trauma to the entire body, was associated with a poor gait outcome. Among the various causes of injury, pedestrians struck by vehicles were associated with assisted gait outcomes. The number of anatomic locations involved in pelvic fractures, pelvic ring instability by Tile classification, and the proportion of unstable sacral fractures were higher in patients with assisted gait outcomes compared with those having unassisted gait outcomes. Weaknesses in the initial hip extensor, knee flexor, ankle dorsiflexor and ankle plantar flexor were observed significantly more often in patients with assisted gait outcomes. The Dumitru and Wilbourn’s scale of the anterior and posterior sacral plexus was significantly higher in the assisted gait group.

Gait outcome after lumbosacral plexus injury is associated with the range and stability of the pelvic fracture and the severity of the anterior and posterior sacral plexus injury. Poor gait outcome was associated with the severity of the trauma to the pelvis rather than that to the entire body.