Background
Traumatic spinal cord injury is a catastrophic disease that affects individuals and society due to persistent sequela. For this reason, overseas researches about traumatic spinal cord injuries have been actively reported at the national or regional level, but there are no epidemiological studies conducted on specific population groups in Korea yet.
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the incidence and severity determinants of traumatic spinal cord injuries by reviewing the medical records of all patients with traumatic spinal cord injuries registered in the N-DEMIS(New Defense Medical Information System).
Methods
From May 2012 to December 2017, a total of 3,011 patients with a diagnosis of traumatic spinal cord injury registered on N-DEMIS were listed and duplicate patients were eliminated. Then, 89 patients with traumatic spinal cord injuries who finally meet the definition of American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) were reviewed by a rehabilitation specialist.
Results
The average incidence of traumatic spinal cord injury in the study was 24.99 per 1 million people per year. The military officers were 19 (21.3%), NCOs(non-commissioned officers) 30 (33.7%), soldiers 38 (42.7%), and cadets 2 (2.25%). And army (86.5%), navy (7.9%) and air force (5.6%) were identified and the mean age at injury was 29.82 (± 9.99) years. According to the common classification criteria of overseas researches, 37 cases (41.6%) suffered traumatic spinal cord injury due to falls, 16 cases (18.0%) were injured by motor vehicles accidents, There were 14 (15.7%) injuries during the military training, 11 (12.4%) sports injuries, 7 (7.9%) diving injuries and 4 (4.5%) other injuries. There were 64 patients (71.9%) of cervical spinal cord injuries, 9 patients (10.1%) of thoracic spinal cord injuries, and 16 patients (18.0%) of lumbosacral spinal cord injuries. The degree of impairment was classified as AIS (ASIA Impairment Scale). Twenty four patients had complete paralysis which made of AIS A grade 19 (21.3%) and AIS B grade 5 (5.6%). On the other hand, patients with incomplete paralysis were 65 (73.0%), consisted with AIS C grade 14 (15.7%), AIS D grade 51 (57.3%), respectively. When the severity of traumatic spinal cord injury was classified as 'complete paralysis' and 'incomplete paralysis', the shorter the military career and the younger age at the time of injury, the more significant correlation was found with the severity of traumatic spinal cord injury.
This is the first study to present the incidence of traumatic spinal cord injuries in military by epidemiological method and this study is the first to analyze the incidence of specific population in Korea. |
