Table 1 Definition of parameters in the article

Low-energy trauma: not high-energy trauma, such as high-speed traffic accidence or fall > 15 feet [13]

Delayed diagnosis (spinal fracture or SCI diagnosis after the day of trauma, less than 24 h count 0 day)

Patient’s delay: the patient visits a physician after the day of trauma

Doctor’s delay: the patient was not diagnosed by doctor

Bamboo spine: diagnosis by radiologist’s report

Subluxation: defined as more than 2 milli-meter distance between the inferior endplate of the neighboring superior vertebra and the superior endplate of the neighboring inferior vertebra at the anterior longitudinal ligament line or dislocation at spinal fracture or spinal cord injury level

Spinal cord injury and level, spinal fracture and level, spinal epidural hematoma and level (levels C0–C2, C3–C7, T1–T12, L1–L5)

Spinal epidural hematoma: spinal epidural hematoma detected on initial or subsequent computed tomography and/or magnetic resonance imaging

Fracture classification

C0–C2 Atlas fractures classified according to Levine and Edwards [25], fractures of the odontoid process according to Anderson and D’Alonzo [26], and fractures of the odontoid body according to Levine and Edwards [27]

C3–L5 Fractures classified according to an algorithm derived from the AO Spine fracture classification [28]

Discharge outcome, 2 years after trauma outcome: AIS

Complications: all events associated with treatment and associated with SCI occurring within 2 years after the trauma

Treatment associated: instrumentation failure, such as migration or loosening of screws/rods; wound infection

Spine or spinal cord injury associated: respiratory failure; pneumonia; pulmonary embolism; pneumothorax; decubitus ulcer; urinary tract infection; sepsis