Prevalence and Characteristics of Traumatic Spinal Cord Injuries for Educational Hospitals in Cairo

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

The Department of Physical Therapy Emergency Hospital, Cairo University Hospitals

Abstract

Abstract
Background: Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) is a catastrophic event that is sudden and unexpected and can results in disturbances to normal sensory, motor, or autonomic function all of which can be devastating for the individual, both socially and economically. To our knowledge, local epidemiological study of traumatic SCI has not been carried out previously in Cairo.
Aim of Study: To identify the prevalence of common causes and characteristics of traumatic SCI among the popu-lation of Cairo.
Patients and Methods: Medical records of patients with traumatic SCI from Neurosurgery Department at Kaser Al-Aini Educational Hospital in Cairo, Egypt, were reviewed from the first of January 2017 to 31 December 2018. Demo-graphic characteristics, etiology, neurological level were analyzed.
Results: A total of 65 medical record of patients with traumatic SCI were reviewed during the mentioned period. The male to female ratio was 4.40:1. The mean age at injury was 32.18 years. The most frequent cause of traumatic SCI was falls (49.2%), followed by traffic accidents (43.1%). The neurological level of injury was 52.3% in cervical region, 30.8% in lumbar region and finally 16.9% in thoracic region.
Conclusion: Falls were the main causes of traumatic SCI among people living in Cairo with higher incidence to cervical lesion. Concerning gender, men have significantly higher rate of injury compared to women especially the young adult population. These information pose a challenge to the society health system to develop preventive strategies to SCI, improve the services and quality of life to Egyptian people living with SCI.

Keywords

The Medical Journal of Cairo University
Volume 87, September
September 2019
Pages 3687-3690

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