Abstract: Objective To discuss the relation between degree of body impairment and that of thoracolumbar spinal injuries resulting from road traffic accidents, and sum up the experiences in body impairment assessment and its regularity. Methods For comprehensive body impairment assessment, 477 cases of thoracolumbar spinal injuries in road accidents have been sorted out, reassessed and rediagnosed. In addition,analyses have been undertaken about their treatment, the assessment of the degree of their thoracolumbar dysfunction,nerve dysfunction and the relations between injuries and sequelaes. Results The analyses show that the degree of thoracolumbar dysfunction and that of the post-injury nerve dysfunction don′t necessarily depend on the quantity and degree of spinal injuries. However, the position suffering from the thoracolumbar spinal injuries has an immense impact on the thoracolumbar dysfunction, and the nerve impairment result mainly from the T1-L1 spinal injuries. The research also shows that there has been a high misdiagnosis rate in hospital about the spinal injuries. Conclusion In body impairment assessment, the cause and effect relations between the injury and degree of injury extent should be analyzed, the injury extent should be employed as principal evidence, and the degree of spinal dysfunction should be taken into greater consideration.

Key words: thoracolumbar spinal injuries, sequela, forensic identification, compensation medicine, assessment upon body impairment