Epidemiological Characteristics of Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury in Guangdong, China.

STUDY DESIGN

A hospital-based retrospective epidemiological study.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to examine the demographic and epidemiological characteristics of patients with traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI) in Guangdong to help health-related institutions develop measures to determine the best allocation of medical resources.

SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA

TSCI is a highly disabling and deadly injury. Currently, there is little information regarding the epidemiological characteristics for TSCI in Guangdong.

METHODS

We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of partial second-grade class-A hospitals (mainly capturing general city and county hospitals and some large-scale affiliated hospitals) in Guangdong province according to the International Classification of Disease Version 10 (ICD-10) and diagnostic code of TSCI.

RESULTS

The study included the medical records of 1340 patients with TSCI, and the annual number of TSCI admissions increased during the 2003 to 2011 period. The male-to-female ratio was approximately 3.5:1. The major causes of spinal cord injuries were high falls (41.0%) and traffic accidents (37.8%). The most common injury among patients with TSCI was cervical injury (818 cases). In addition, 62.9% of the patients had spinal fractures, 24.0% had other fractures, and 13.7% had brain injuries. Furthermore, 25.1% (337/1340) of the patients experienced clinical complications. The differences in the number of patients with and without complete injury who accepted surgery and hyperbaric oxygen therapy were statistically significant (P < 0.05), and the difference in total medical cost was significant (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

There are specific epidemiological characteristics of TSCI patients in Guangdong, and preventive measures are suggested to focus on high-risk populations, such as adult men.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE