Ann Rehabil Med.  2021 Feb;45(1):7-15. 10.5535/arm.20148.

Epidemiology of Spinal Cord Injury: Changes to Its Cause Amid Aging Population, a Single Center Study

• Kim HS
• Lim KB
• Kim J
• Kang J
• Lee H
• Lee SW
• Yoo J

• KMID: 2513225
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.5535/arm.20148

Abstract

Objective
To investigate the epidemiologic and demographic characteristics of patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) who were admitted to a department of rehabilitation of a university hospital.
Methods
This was a descriptive cross-sectional study. Medical records including sex, age at injury, type of disability, traumatic or non-traumatic etiology and presence of ossification of posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL) of patients with SCI who were admitted to the department of rehabilitation between 2012 and 2018 were reviewed.
Results
Of the 221 cases of SCI, 161 were traumatic and 60 were non-traumatic. The mean age at injury was 52.8 years. People aged 40–49 years showed highest proportion among overall SCI patients (19.0%). The proportion of male patients was higher in traumatic SCI at 4.96:1 than in non-traumatic SCI at 1.30:1. The most common cause of traumatic SCI was falling off (37.3%), followed by motor vehicle crash (35.4%) and tripping over (19.3%). Meanwhile, the most common cause of non-traumatic SCI was neoplasm (35.0%). Tripping over was the leading cause of traumatic SCI in patients aged ≥60 years (42.6%). A high proportion of traumatic SCI patients were found to have underlying OPLL (26.1%), particularly those who were injured by tripping over (64.5%).
Conclusion
The mean age of SCI patients was higher than that of previous studies. Falls was the single most common cause of traumatic SCI, and tripping over was the most common cause of injury in the elderly patients. OPLL was prevalent in patients who were injured from tripping over.

Keyword

Spinal cord injuries, Epidemiology, Ossification of posterior longitudinal ligament, Accidental falls

Figure

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  Fig. 1. Changes in proportion of elderly people among Korean population.

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  Fig. 2. Changes in proportion of elderly patients and mean age at injury.

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  Fig. 3. Changes in proportion of incomplete spinal cord injury.

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