Objectives
Compared with traumatic spinal cord injury, there are relatively few publications on nontraumatic spinal cord injury. So the purpose of this study was to describe epidemiologic changes after nontraumatic spinal cord injury for last 30 years in Korea.
Method
Medical records of 980 patients with nontraumatic spinal cord injury who admitted to the Rehabilitation Center were collected and reviewed retrospectively. Patient's sex, age of onset, cause of injury, level and completeness were investigated through medical records. 980 patients were divided into 3 groups according to onset of injury(group1:1990~1999, group2:2000~2009, group3:2010~2019). Detailed clinical and neurological evaluation was performed by the International standards for neurological classification of spinal cord injury (ISNCSCI).
Results
56.7% of cases are male. The most frequent level of injury was L2(10.7%), T12 and L1(9.1%) during last 5 years(2015-2019). The proportion of 21-30 age group was the highest in group1(25.5%), But the proportion of 51-60 age group was the highest in group2(20.8%) and group3(23.6%). During the last 30 years, the mean age at injury has increased from 31.2 to 56.3 years old. Myelitis was the highest cause of injury in group1(27.4%). But in group2 and group3, degenerative disease was the highest(25.2%, 28.3%). Paraplegia injuries occurred more than tetraplegia injuries and incomplete injuries occurred more than complete injuries.
Conclusion
We have outlined nontraumatic spinal cord injury patients' epidemiologic data. During last 30 years, proportion of degenerative disease and vascular disease has increased. And proportion of myelitis has decreased. Population aging and increased life expentancy may have affected epidemiologic data on nontraumatic spinal cord injuries. This study represents the current updates of various epidemiologic factors to understand the impact on nontraumatic spinal cord injury. |
