Epidemiology of traumatic spinal cord injury in Spain: A ten-year analysis of trend of clinical and demographic characteristics.

Context: The study of epidemiological changes of traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI) is needed due to its highly variable incidence.

Objective: To determine the incidence of TSCI in Spain and to describe the trend of clinical and demographic characteristics according to age group during a 10-year period.

Methods: A prospective cohort study was conducted. A multidisciplinary team evaluated all individuals with new TSCI. The data were recorded according to the International Spinal Cord Injury Core Data Sets.

Results: In a 10-year period, 933 new patients with TSCI were admitted to the hospital. The annual incidence of TSCI was 6.2 per million. The leading causes of injury were traffic accidents (38.5%), low-level falls (20.6%), and high-level falls (19.1%). Males, age group of 31-45 years, and cervical level of injury were the most common profiles of TSCI. In patients over 60 years,71.5% were injured following a fall, particularly low-level falls (47.2%). In patients under 60 years old, the leading cause of SCI was traffic accidents (46%). The proportion of tetraplegia in patients above 60 years was 68.3%, compared to 43.7% in patients under 60 years of age. Patients in the age group above 60 years were hospitalized with a shorter duration of rehabilitation compared to younger age group.

Conclusions: Compared with globally estimated data reported in previous studies, this research demonstrated a low incidence of TSCI in Spain, suggesting a decrease in the last years. Falls and traffic accidents were the most common causes of TSCI in elderly and youth, respectively. Prevention programs should focus on these issues.