Demographic characteristics after traumatic and non-traumatic spinal cord injury: a retrospective comparison study

Study design: Retrospective, 12-year case series. Objective: To compare neurological and functional outcomes, and complications of patients with traumatic vs non-traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) after in-patient rehabilitation. Setting: In-patient rehabilitation unit of a tertiary research hospital. Materials and Methods: The sample consisted of 165 newly injured patients with traumatic and non-traumatic spinal cord lesions whose medical records were retrospectively reviewed. Demographic characteristics, etiology, American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) impairment scale, functional independence measurement (FIM) subgroup scores, length of stay and medical complications in both groups were compared. Results: In all, 38 patients (23%) were non-traumatic and 127 patients (77%) were traumatic in etiology. Compared with patients with traumatic SCI (mean age 37.81 +/- 13.65 years), patients with non-traumatic SCI (mean age 53.97 +/- 14.48 years) were significantly older (P < 0.05). Incomplete SCI was significantly higher in the non-traumatic group when compared with the traumatic group (P < 0.001). In the non-traumatic group, admission motor FIM scores were significantly higher (28.29 +/- 16.04) than scores from the traumatic group (36.60 +/- 21.65; P=0.029); however, there was no significant difference in discharge motor FIM scores between the two groups (P=0.140). ASIA impairment scale scores were significantly higher in non-traumatic group both at admission and discharge (P=0.000 and P=0.000, respectively). The length of hospital stay was significantly shorter in the non-traumatic group (P=0.002). Conclusion: According to the results of this study, although patients with non-traumatic SCI had shorter length of stay and higher ASIA scores, there was no significant difference in functional outcomes between traumatic and non-traumatic SCI patients. Spinal Cord (2010) 48, 862-866; doi:10.1038/sc.2010.49; published online 4 May 2010