Table 1. Patient inclusion and exclusion criteria.

RNSH: The Royal North Shore Hospital; SCI: spinal cord injury

Inclusion criteria	Exclusion criteria
Greater than 16 years of age	Subacute presentation (>48 hours after injury)
Acute traumatic SCI (injury within 48 hours before presentation)	Cervical SCI of aetiology other than trauma (i.e., malignancy, infection, ischemia, complications of medical or surgical intervention, periprosthetic fracture, or hardware failure)
Cervical decompression +/- fusion +/- fixation +/- bone grafting performed	Patients managed nonoperatively
Admission to RNSH under the orthopaedics team	Patients who died before surgery
	Patients managed with halo external fixation