Characteristics in a traumatic spinal cord injury population

The aim of this study was to describe core characteristics in a Danish population of rehabilitated traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) patients. Retrospectively, data were extracted from a database on all traumatic patients with SCI admitted to the Spinal Cord Injury Centre of Western Denmark having sustained an injury to the spinal cord between 1 January 1997 and 1 January 2017. Age is presented as medians and interquartile ranges (IQR). A total of 584 (women = 122; men = 462) traumatic patients with SCI with a median age of 42.9 years (26.4-58.3 years) were identified of whom 390 underwent surgery (SG) and 55 were treated conservatively forming a conservative group (CG). The acute treatment regime was unknown in 139 patients with SCI. Patients in the CG were significantly older (median 63.6 years (IQR: 39.1-71.5) than patients in the SG (median 52.8 years (IQR: 37.2-67.2), p = 0.02). The relative risk (RR) of fractures was higher in the SG (RR = 2.74 (1.91-3.95), p less than 0.0001). The initial American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale (AIS) grades (A, B, C and D) differed significantly (Kruskal-Wallis test, p less than 0.02) with a higher frequency of AIS Din the CG. Fewer persons with a cervical than with a non-cervical level of injury underwent spinal surgery (RR = 0.65 (0.54-0.77), p less than 0.0004). In a Danish population of patients with traumatic SCI, we observed a preponderance for surgical treatment among a) younger patients, b) patients with vertebral fractures, and c) more severe SCI cases. This study received no external funding. The study was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki II Declaration. Data were obtained with permission from the Danish Data Protection Agency (record number 2012-41-0572).