Article

A limitation of many studies of non-traumatic spinal cord injury
(NT-SCI) and traumatic spinal cord injury (T-SCI) is potential lack of
generalizability because of selection bias. An open cohort study using a national
rehabilitation database was planned to address this. OBJECTIVE: To compare the
demographic characteristics and outcomes between NT-SCI and T-SCI patients.
SETTING: Rehabilitation hospitals in Australia. The Australasian
Rehabilitation Outcomes Centre maintains a national database of information on
in-patients admitted to almost all (130/145 as at 2006) public and private
rehabilitation hospitals in Australia. It collects a range of demographic and
clinical outcomes. Patients were included if they were discharged between 1
January 2002 and 31 December 2006. Patients were excluded if they were admitted
for <7 days, only for assessment or were a readmission. RESULTS: There were 3610
patients included (NT-SCI, n=2241, 62.1%; T-SCI, n=1361, 37.7%). There were
numerous significant differences between NT-SCI and T-SCI patients. NT-SCI
patients were generally older (median age NT-SCI 67 years vs T-SCI 46 years,
P=0.000), less likely to be male (male NT-SCI 52.5% vs T-SCI 71.6%, P=0.000) and
had a shorter length of stay (median NT-SCI 21 days vs T-SCI 44 days, P=0.000).
NT-SCI patients were also less disabled than T-SCI patients, having higher
Functional Independence Measure motor subscale score on admission (median NT-SCI
53 vs T-SCI 38, P=0.000) and discharge (median NT-SCI 76 vs T-SCI 74, P=0.000).
CONCLUSION: Previous demographic studies of NT-SCI and T-SCI patients are similar
to our population-based results. More population-based research in SCI is
required.

Langue : ANGLAIS