Epidemiological and treatment profiles of spinal cord injury in southeast Nigeria

Abstract

Study design: Retrospective study. Objective: To evaluate the epidemiology and treatment outcome of spinal cord injuries (SCIs) at three tertiary care centres within southeast Nigeria. Setting: Southeast Nigeria. Methods: Causes, seasonal variation, transportation to hospital, severity of injury, treatment and outcome of patients with SCIs treated by the authors at three study locations from September 2009 to August 2012 were studied. Results: Eighty-five patients with SCI had been admitted during that period to the three hospitals and were qualified for the study. The age range was 2-75 years with a mean of 36.13 years. The 31-45 years age group is the most frequently affected. Altogether, 69 male and 16 female individuals were involved. Motor vehicle accident (MVA) (47, 55.3%) was the most frequent cause of injury. Falls from palm trees (3.5%) were markedly reduced from what they were inferred to be (40.2%) from a similar study in our area in 1988. Injury peaks were observed during major festivities. Only three patients (0.035%) were transported to care centres with an ambulance. Forty patients were classified as being affected by ASIA grade A injury, whereas 45 patients had various ASIA grades of incomplete injury. Sixty-eight patients were managed conservatively; 23 of them improved from their grades, 35 remained the same, 1 worsened, while 9 died. Of 17 patients treated operatively, 9 improved, 5 remained the same, 2 worsened and 1 died. Conclusion: Currently, SCIs reported in the three main hospitals located in southeast Nigeria are caused mainly by MVAs. SCI affects mainly male individuals and peak frequencies are observed during festivities.

Quality of Life among Persons with Paraplegic Spinal Cord Injury

“…This differs from the Nigerian study, where it was found that farmers were the fifth most common occupation group who suffered from SCI (Nwankwo and Uche, 2013).…”

“…There were more men than women, with a ratio of 8:1. An epidemiological in Southeast Nigeria found that the male and female ratio was 4.3:1 and the 31-45 year age group was more frequently affected (Nwankwo and Uche, 2013). In North America the main cause of traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI) was motor vehicles accident rather than fall from height (Mothe and Tator, 2013).…”

“…The causes of SCI may differ from person to person due to different age, sex, race and sociocultural activities (Hoque et al, 2012). The most frequent cause of traumatic spinal cord injury is motor vehicle accidents, followed by falls in America and Nigeria (Chen et al, 2013;Mothe & Tator, 2013;Nwankwo & Uche, 2013). The third most common cause of SCI in America is violence (Putzke et al, 2001).…”

Demographic Profile of Spinal Cord Injury (SCI): A Hospital-based Prospective study in Bangladesh

“…High and high-energy falls were more common (82.9%) than low falls (17.1%) in the current study. Falls from a significant height were also noted in many low and lower-middle income countries like India (Chhabra and Arora, 2012), Nepal (Lakhey et al, 2005), Pakistan (Rathore et al, 2008), and Nigeria (Nwankwo and Uche, 2013). Contrarily, low falls occurred more in middle and high-income countries where elderly people (>65 years) are a growing concern: China (Cheng et al, 2008), Australia (Tee et al, 2013), Finland (Koskinen et al, 2014), and Japan (Katoh et al, 2014).…”

Blunt Chest Injury: epidemiological profile and determinant of mortality

“…Previous studies have pointed out the seasonal occurrence of trauma. [26][27][28] The incidence of blunt chest injury is related to the number of motor vehicular accidents and thus the incidence is decreased with reduction in motor vehicular accidents. 2 and conversely, increased with increased motor vehicular accidents.…”