Abstract
Study design:
Retrospective, 12-year case series.
Objective:
To compare neurological and functional outcomes, and complications of patients with traumatic vs non-traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) after in-patient rehabilitation.
Setting:
In-patient rehabilitation unit of a tertiary research hospital.
Materials and Methods:
The sample consisted of 165 newly injured patients with traumatic and non-traumatic spinal cord lesions whose medical records were retrospectively reviewed. Demographic characteristics, etiology, American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) impairment scale, functional independence measurement (FIM) subgroup scores, length of stay and medical complications in both groups were compared.
Results:
In all, 38 patients (23%) were non-traumatic and 127 patients (77%) were traumatic in etiology. Compared with patients with traumatic SCI (mean age 37.81±13.65 years), patients with non-traumatic SCI (mean age 53.97±14.48 years) were significantly older (P<0.05). Incomplete SCI was significantly higher in the non-traumatic group when compared with the traumatic group (P<0.001). In the non-traumatic group, admission motor FIM scores were significantly higher (28.29±16.04) than scores from the traumatic group (36.60±21.65; P=0.029); however, there was no significant difference in discharge motor FIM scores between the two groups (P=0.140). ASIA impairment scale scores were significantly higher in non-traumatic group both at admission and discharge (P=0.000 and P=0.000, respectively). The length of hospital stay was significantly shorter in the non-traumatic group (P=0.002).
Conclusion:
According to the results of this study, although patients with non-traumatic SCI had shorter length of stay and higher ASIA scores, there was no significant difference in functional outcomes between traumatic and non-traumatic SCI patients.
Similar content being viewed by others
Log in or create a free account to read this content
Gain free access to this article, as well as selected content from this journal and more on nature.com
or
References
De Vivo MJ, Kartus PL, Rutt RD, Stover SL, Fine PR . The influence of age at time of spinal cord injury on rehabilitation outcome. Arc Neurol 1990; 47: 687–691.
McKinley WO, Seel RT, Hardman JT . Nontraumatic spinal cord injury: incidence, epidemiology, and functional outcome. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 1999; 80: 619–623.
McKinley WO, Seel RT, Gadi RK, Tewksbury MA . Nontraumatic vs. traumatic spinal cord injury: a rehabilitation outcome comparison. Am J Phys Med Rehabil 2001; 80: 693–699.
Stover SL, DeLisa JA, Whiteneck GG . Spinal Cord Injury: Clinical Outcomes from the Model Systems. Apsen Publications: Gaithersburg, MD, 1995.
Celani MG, Spizzichino L, Ricci S, Zampolini M, Franceschini M . For the retrospective study group on SCI. Spinal cord injury in Italy: a multicenter retrospective study. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2001; 82: 589–596.
Ones K, Yilmaz E, Beydogan A, Gultekin O, Caglar N . Comparison of functional results in non-traumatic and traumatic spinal cord injury. Disabil Rehabil 2007; 29: 1185–1191.
Grupta A, Taly AB, Srivastava A, Murali T . Non-traumatic spinal cord lesions: epidemiology, complications, neurological and functional outcome of rehabilitation. Spinal Cord 2009; 47: 307–311.
Surkin J, Gilbert BJC, Harkey III HL, Sniezek J, Currier M . Spinal cord injury in Mississippi: findings and evaluation, 1992–1994. Spine 2000; 15: 716–721.
Wyndaele M, Wyndaele J-J . Incidence, prevalence and epidemiology of spinal cord injury: what learns a worldwide literature survey? Spinal Cord 2006; 44: 523–529.
Pickett GE, Campos-Benitez M, Keller JL, Duggal N . Epidemiology of traumatic spinal cord injury in Canada. Spine 2006; 31: 799–805.
New PW, Rawicki HB, Bailey MJ . Nontraumatic spinal cord injury: demographic characteristics and complications. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2002; 83: 996–1001.
Go BK, DeVivo MJ, Richard JS . The epidemiology of spinal cord injury. In: Stover SL, DeLisa JA, Whiteneck JJ (eds). Spinal Cord Injury: Clinical Outcomes from the Model Systems. Aspen Publishing: Gaithersburg, MD, 1995, pp 21–55.
Cifu DX, Huang ME, Kolakowsky-Hayner SA, Seel RT . Age, outcome and rehabilitation costs after paraplegia caused by traumatic injury of the thoracic spinal cord, conus medullaris and cauda equina. J Neurotrauma 1999; 16: 805–815.
McKinley W, Conti-Wyneken A, Vokac C, Cifu D . Rehabilitative functional outcome of patients with neoplastic spinal cord compression. Arc Phys Med Rehabil 1996; 77: 892–895.
Catz A, Goldin D, Fishel B, Ronen J, Bluvshtein V, Gelernter I . Recovery of neurologic function following nontraumatic spinal cord lesions in Israel. Spine 2004; 29: 2278–2282.
Eastwood EA, Hagglund KJ, Ragnars KT, Gordon WA, Marino RJ . Medical rehabilitation length of stay and outcomes for persons with traumatic spinal cord injury. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 1999; 80: 1457–1463.
McKinley WO, Tewksbury MA, Godbout CJ . Comparison of medical complications following nontraumatic and traumatic spinal cord injury. J Spinal Cord Med 2002; 25: 88–93.
Yỳldỳz N, Alkan H, Sarsan A, Özgen M, Topuz O, Ardỳç F . Comparison of the differences between traumatic and non-traumatic spinal cord injury. Turk J Phys Med Rehab 2009; 55: 50–54.
Chen D, Apple DF, Hudson LH, Bode R . Medical complications during acute rehabilitation following spinal cord injury-current experience of the model systems. Arch Phy Med Rehabil 1999; 80: 1397–1401.
New PW, Lim TC, Hill ST, Brown DJ . A survey of pain during rehabilitation after acute spinal cord injury. Spinal Cord 1997; 35: 658–663.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cosar, S., Yemisci, O., Oztop, P. et al. Demographic characteristics after traumatic and non-traumatic spinal cord injury: a retrospective comparison study. Spinal Cord 48, 862–866 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.2010.49
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.2010.49
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
A demographic profile of cervical injury: an Indonesian single tertiary hospital study with 6 months to 1-year follow-up
The Egyptian Journal of Neurology, Psychiatry and Neurosurgery (2021)
-
Dynamic body-weight support to boost rehabilitation outcomes in patients with non-traumatic spinal cord injury: an observational study
Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation (2020)
-
Prevalence and associated factors of pain in the Swiss spinal cord injury population
Spinal Cord (2017)
-
Demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with spinal cord injury: a single hospital-based study
Spinal Cord (2016)
-
The effectiveness of inpatients rehabilitation for spinal cord patients in Siriraj hospital
Spinal Cord (2015)
