Researchers tackle spinal cord concerns for Maori

Maori and Polynesians may be more vulnerable to spinal cord injuries because they appear to have narrower spine canals than Europeans, according to research at Auckland's Middlemore Hospital.

Orthopaedic surgeon Mr Geoffrey Coldham and radiologist Dr Tony Doyle examined scans of 165 trauma patients who had experienced neck pain after injury.

They found the spinal canals of Maori were, on average, 1mm smaller than Europeans, and those of Polynesians were 2mm smaller.

Mr Coldham said symptoms of narrow spinal canals could include tingling, weakness or numbness in limbs after activities like sport.

He said such symptoms should be referred for medical assessment as they could be significant for some Maori or Polynesians who played contact sport and had particularly narrow canals. While Mr Coldham thought most would be fine, there could be some for whom such sport or activities would be too risky.

The spinal canal of adult European men was usually about 13mm in diameter.

Spinal cords were about 10mm in diameter which meant any spinal canals of only about 11 mm did not leave a lot of room for the cord to "give" in an injury.

People with narrow spinal canals were not more likely to sustain neck injuries. However, if those people did damage their spinal cords the injuries were more likely to be severe.

Mr Coldham said there were only about 50 major spinal cord injuries in New Zealand a year and he was not aware that Maori or Polynesians were overly represented among them.

However, they were over-represented in what he called incomplete spinal injuries, where there was no fracture.

Other ethnic groups had been shown to have more narrow spinal canals than Europeans including Koreans and South African blacks.