Abstract
Study design
A hospital-based retrospective epidemiological study.
Objective
To describe the demographic and epidemiological characteristics of patients with traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI) in Xi’an to help health-related institutions formulate corresponding measures.
Setting
People with TSCI, all spine centres and orthopaedic centres in Xi’an, China.
Methods
We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of the all spine centers or orthopedic centers in Xi’an according to the International Classification of Disease Version 10 (ICD-10) and diagnostic code of TSCI. Variables included gender, age, medical insurance, etiology, occupation, level of injury, and severity of injury, multiple injury, complication, treatment, and so on.
Results
The study included the medical records of 1730 patients with TSCI from 2014 to 2018. The estimated annual incidence rate increased from 39.0 cases (95% CI, 34.7–43.3 cases) per 1 million persons in 2014 to 43.2 cases (95% CI, 39.0–47.5 cases) per 1 million persons in 2018. The leading cause of TSCI was high falls (35.5%, 614 cases). The most common injury site was the cervical spinal cord, accounting for 55.7% (963 cases). The degree of injury severity with the highest proportion was incomplete tetraplegia (47.2%, 816 cases). In addition, 71.4% (1236 cases) of TSCI cases had spinal fracture or dislocation.
Conclusions
There are specific epidemiological characteristics of TSCI patients in Xi’an, and preventive measures are suggested to be based on the characteristics of the different types of patients with TSCI and focused on high-risk groups.
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Data availability
The datasets (individual participant level data) generated during and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available due personal privacy (such as patient name, ID number, home address, telephone number) but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. Partial data analysed during this study are included in this published article (and its Supplementary Information files).
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Acknowledgements
We are very grateful to Professor Xiao Qi, an epidemiologist, for providing statistical support for this study.
Funding
This study was supported by the Xi’an Municipal Health Committee (2020yb34), the Science and Technology Commission of Shaanxi (2020SF-187), the Science and Technology Commission of Shaanxi (2018HJCG-08), the National Natural Science Funds (81830077) and the Science and Technology Commission of Xi’an (20YXYJ0011(3)).
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LY and JD reviewed and analysed the data. DH, JD and LY obtained funds and conceived and designed the study. QT, ZZ, YW, HL, YC, CJ, and LB collected the data. DH, BH and LY participated in the critical revision of the manuscript. JD drafted the paper.
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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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The Ethics Committee of Xi’an Honghui Hospital and the ethics committee of each participating centre approved the review process and waived the requirement to obtain patients’ written informed consent.
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Du, J., Hao, D., He, B. et al. Epidemiological characteristics of traumatic spinal cord injury in Xi’an, China. Spinal Cord 59, 804–813 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41393-020-00592-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41393-020-00592-3
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