The Thoracolumbar Injury Classifica

The Thoracolumbar Injury Classification and Severity (TLICS) score 20 and the Subaxial Cervical Spine Injury Classification and Severity (SLIC) score 21 serve as clinical decision-­making tools to assist in management of patients with thoracic and cervical spine injuries, respectively. TLICS and SLIC integrate the same three categories of injury characterization: injury morphology, integrity of the posterior ligamentous complex (PLC) for TLICS or discoligamentous complex (DLC) for SLIC, and neurological status (Table 1). Patients with a score of 3 or less should be managed nonsurgically, and a score of 5 or more warrants surgical intervention. A score of 4 can be managed surgically or nonsurgically based on surgeon’s decision. However, a recent study showed that patients with a score of 4 that underwent surgery reported less pain.