Citation

Agarwal P, Upadhyay P, Raja K. Spinal Cord 2007; 45(9): 597–602.

Affiliation

1Department of Physiotherapy, Manipal College of Allied Health Sciences, Manipal Academy Of Higher Education, Manipal, India.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, International Spinal Cord Society, Publisher Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1038/sj.sc.3102005

PMID

17179974

Abstract

Study design and subjects: Retrospective descriptive analysis of data of patients with spinal injuries admitted to a tertiary referral medical center from January 1, 2003 to December 31, 2004.

Objectives: To identify the demographic profile of patients with spinal injuries admitted in this hospital.Setting:Medical records department, Kasturba Hospital, Manipal, Karnataka, India.

Methods: A total of 207 patients with traumatic and non-traumatic spinal injuries were included in the study. The patient characteristics that were included were age groups, neurologic status, mode and neurological level of injury, management and recovery pattern.

Results: Ratio of men to women who sustained spinal injuries was 3.6:1. The maximum number of patients was in the age range of 20-39 years. The different levels of spine that sustained injuries were cervical spine (36.2%), thoracic spine (34.3%) and lumbar spine (29.5%). There were 118 patients with neurological deficit. Mechanisms of injury recorded were fall from height (58.9%), fall of weight (7.2%), motor vehicle accidents (21.3%) and non-traumatic causes (12.6%). Of these 207 spinal injury patients, 74.4% were managed conservatively, whereas 25.6% patients were managed surgically.

Observation: This study gives a preliminary overview of the characteristics of patients with spinal injuries in this hospital.

Language: en