Nontraumatic spinal cord lesions: a prospective study of medical complications during in-patient rehabilitation

Nair, K P Sivaraman; Taly, Arun B.; Maheshwarappa, B M; Kumar, J. Keshav; Murali, T; Rao, Shivaji

doi:10.1038/sj.sc.3101752

Cited by 32 publications

(35 citation statements)

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“…In the present study, 90.62% of patients (58/ 64) had at least one medical complication during in-patient rehabilitation. Similar frequency was noted by Nair et al 2 in their series with NTSCL patients. However, New et al observed a lower incidence (63.2%) of medical complications in their series.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

“…17 But Nair et al 2 in their study on NTSCL, did not observe significant correlation between age and frequency of medical complications during the rehabilitation phase. In the present study, 90.62% of patients (58/ 64) had at least one medical complication during in-patient rehabilitation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%

“…The reason behind this low frequency could be; because of different etiology of the cord lesion, bladder management technique, usage of antibiotics and infection control protocols. 2 In NTSCL, the frequency of spasticity ranged from 14.9 to 56%. 2,3,19 In the present study, spasticity was found to be present in 35.93% of patients.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2 In NTSCL, the frequency of spasticity ranged from 14.9 to 56%. 2,3,19 In the present study, spasticity was found to be present in 35.93% of patients. Maynard et al 20 reported 32.2% of patients with TSCL developed spasticity before discharge from hospital.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…3 Urinary tract infection (UTI), pain (naturopathic as well as musculoskeletal), pressure ulcers, spasticity, depression, heterotrophic ossification and deep vein thrombosis are among the more common complications noticed in patients suffering from NTSCL during rehabilitation. There are few studies 1,2 that suggest UTI as the most common complication faced during in-patient rehabilitation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Non-traumatic spinal cord lesions: epidemiology, complications, neurological and functional outcome of rehabilitation

et al. 2008

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Study design: Prospective cross-sectional study. Objective: To study epidemiology, complication, neurological and functional outcome in nontraumatic spinal cord lesions (NTSCL) after inpatient rehabilitation. Setting: Neurological rehabilitation unit of a tertiary research hospital. Methods: Sixty-four patients (M/F ¼ 28:36) with NTSCL admitted from June 2005 to January 2008 for multidisciplinary rehabilitation. Epidemiology, medical complications during stay in rehabilitation, admission and dischargeFBarthel Index (BI) and American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) impairment scale for functional and neurological recovery, respectively, were recorded and analyzed. Results: NTSCL constituted 60% (64 of 106) of the total SCL patients admitted for rehabilitation during the same period. Female patients outnumbered males (56.25%) in the study. Mean age, duration of illness and duration of stay in rehabilitation were 30.64±13.67 years (6-57), 7.09±9.15 months (1-48) and 55.75 ± 40.91 days (14-193), respectively. The ratio of paraplegia and quadriplegia was 2:1. Forty-four patients (68.75%) had incomplete cord lesion according to the ASIA impairment scale. Spinal tumors (26.6%) were found to be the most common etiology, followed by Pott's spine (25%) and transverse myelitis (22%). Urinary tract infection was found to be the most common complication (50%), followed by spasticity (35.93%) and urinary incontinence (31.25%). The mean BI scores showed significant (P ¼ 0.000) functional recovery during rehabilitation using paired Student's t-test. The ASIA impairment scale showed significant neurological recovery (P ¼ 0.001) using the Wilcoxon non-parametric test. Conclusions: NTSCL constitute a significant proportion of overall SCL. Female population, paraplegia and incomplete cord lesions are more common among NTSCL in this study. Patients with NTSCL recover significantly both neurologically and functionally with rehabilitation intervention.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%