Abstract
We carried out an epidemiological survey of acute traumatic spinal cord injury sequentially from 2009 to 2011. Data were obtained from 37 hospitals where orthopedic surgeons were working. The mean collection rate was 83.8%, and a total of 297 patients (mean age 64.0 years) with traumatic spinal cord injury were identified. The peak frequency of spinal cord injuries occurred in the 70-79-year age group. On the basis of the Frankel grading for classification of palsy, 41 patients(14%) were classified as Frankel grade A, 27 (9%) as grade B, 88 (29%) as grade C and 142 (48%) as grade D. Traffic accidents, falls, and falls from height were the most common causes. Cervical level injuries were found in 239 patients (80.5%) among whom 155 (64.8%) had no bone injuries in the cervical spine. On the other hand, 58 patients had thoracolumbar injuries and all of them had fractures or dislocations. The annual incidence of spinal cord injury in Kochi prefecture was 124.7 per million. These results indicate that spinal cord injuries in the elderly will likely increase in Japan because the aging of the population in Kochi is progressing much more rapidly than in Japanese as a whole.
