Hossain MS, Rahman MA, Herbert RD, Quadir MM, Bowden JL, Harvey LA. Spinal Cord 2015; 54(2): 132-136.
Affiliation
John Walsh Centre for Rehabilitation Research, Kolling Institute, Sydney Medical School/Northern, University of Sydney, Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
STUDY DESIGN: Mixed retrospective-prospective cohort study.
OBJECTIVES: To determine 2-year survival following discharge from hospital after spinal cord injury in Bangladesh. SETTING: Bangladesh.
METHODS: Medical records were used to identify all patients admitted in 2011 with a recent spinal cord injury to the Centre for Rehabilitation of the Paralysed, a large Bangladeshi hospital that specialises in care of people with spinal cord injury. Patients or their families were subsequently visited or contacted by telephone in 2014. Vital status and, where relevant, date and cause of death were determined by verbal autopsy.
RESULTS: 350 of 371 people admitted with a recent spinal cord injury in 2011 were discharged alive from hospital. All but eleven were accounted for two years after discharge (97% follow-up). Two-year survival was 87% (95% CI 83% to 90%). Two-year survival of those who were wheelchair-dependent was 81% (95% CI 76% to 86%). The most common cause of death was sepsis due to pressure ulcers.
CONCLUSION: In Bangladesh, approximately one in five people with spinal cord injury who are wheelchair-dependent die within two years of discharge from hospital. Most deaths are due to sepsis from potentially preventable pressure ulcers.Spinal Cord advance online publication, 16 June 2015; doi:10.1038/sc.2015.92.