Epidemiological Characteristics of Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury in Guangzhou, China

Author(s): Shaojie He, Zhenyu Zhao, Sheng Tang, Xiaofeng Lai, Xincheng Yu, Junlong Hou, Dingsheng Zha, Hao Wu

Objective: To study the epidemiological characteristics of traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI) in Guangzhou, China, and identify high-risk population, so as to provide reference for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of SCI. Methods: The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University between January 2017 and December 2020 hospitalized patients with spinal cord injury were analyzed retrospectively, and observe the following relevant factors: age, gender, injury time, injury causes, segmental spinal cord injury, whether with spine fracture, whether to merge with other parts of the injury, whether complications. The above indicators were analyzed statistically. Results: There were 197 patients with spinal cord injury, the male to female ratio was 2.72:1. The average age was 47.83±13.70 years from 5 to 80 years old, and the patients aged from 41 to 50 years old were the most (28.0%). The main causes of injuries were falls (33.0%), falls (32.0%), traffic accidents (26.9%), and heavy injuries (7.1%). The incidence of lumbar spinal cord injury was the highest, followed by cervical spine injury. Complications occurred during hospitalization in 51.3% of TSCI patients, with pulmonary infection accounting for 34.8%, followed by urinary tract infection accounting for 25.6%. The higher the severity of spinal cord injury, the higher the probability of complications, the incidence of complications in ASIA grade A patients was 96%. Class B 73.3%; Grade C 59.1%, D 29.6%. Conclusion: Young and middle-aged men are the high risk group of TSCI, and the main causes of injury are fall injury, fall injury and car accident injury. The incidence of spinal cord injury was highest in lumbar vertebra L1 and L2, cervical vertebra C4 and C5, and thoracic vertebra T12 and T11. Complications occurred during hospitalization in 51.3% of TSCI patients, with pulmonary infection being the most common, followed by urinary tract infection. The higher the severity of spinal cord injury, the greater the probability of complications.

Spinal Cord Injury, Epidemiology, Characteristic, The Correlation

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