Epidemiological Study of Spinal Cord Injuries in Basrah View PDF

Baqer Hadi Jasim Al-Mohammed
Department Of Neurosurgery, Al-Basrah Teaching Hospital, Basrah Health Directorate, Ministry Of Health, Basrah, Iraq

Published on: 2024-10-18

Abstract

Background: Spinal cord injury (SCI) is one of the major insults to the central nervous system (CNS) that results in persisting physical and psychological sequel. The study aimed to investigate the epidemiologic and demographic characters of cases with SCI who were admitted to a department of neurosurgery.

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study of cases with SCI from traumatic or non-traumatic reasons who were hospitalized for rehabilitation to a dedicated hospital between 2022 and 2024. Data on demographic, injury and medical characteristics were obtained from case records. Descriptive analyses of SCI are suggested with stratification by key demographic characteristics and SCI specific characteristics (e.g., sex, age at injury, American spinal injury association impairment scale (AIS) score at admission and discharge, SCI type, and etiology) according to the international spinal cord society guidelines.

Results: In total, 200 cases of SCI were included in the study. Of these, 161 were traumatic and 60 were non-traumatic. In the traumatic SCI group, 132 (83.2%) were males and 28 (16.8%) were females; in the non-traumatic SCI group, 21 (56.7%) were males and 20 (43.3%) were females. The mean age of the overall cohort was 50.7 ± 18.8 years, and that of the traumatic and the non-traumatic SCI groups were 48.7 ± 19.1 and 55.8 ± 17.4 years, respectively. Most common AIS scale was D. tetraplegia disability more common reported. Falling off was the most common cause of traumatic SCI (n = 60, 37.3%), followed by motor accidents (n = 57, 35.4%). Incomplete pattern of trauma is frequent.

Conclusion: The mean age of SCI patients was higher than that of previous studies. Falls were the single most common cause of traumatic SCI. However, non-traumatic reasons are mostly attributed to neoplasm

Keywords

Spinal cord injuries, Motor accident, Falls from high, Paraplegia, Tetraplegia

Introduction

SCI is one of the major insults to the CNS that results in persisting physical and psychological sequel, thereby incurring tremendous socioeconomic costs related to health care therapy, rehabilitation and loss of productivity [1, 2]. Educational programs that are designed based on epidemiologic studies have shown to be successful in reducing the incidence of traumatic SCI [3-6]. In the United States, epidemiologic changes in age, gender and completeness of SCI injury are continuously being monitored by the NSCISC and a gradual increase in the prevalence of the people with old age, female sex, and incomplete injury has been reported [7-10].