Sammanfattning
Background. The main purpose of this article is to provide an overview of demography, neurological level of injury, completeness of injury, incidence, prevalence, injury mechanisms as well as lethality and causes of death associated with traumatic spinal cord injuries.
Material and method. A literature search was carried out in PubMed, with the search words «traumatic spinal cord injury»/«traumatic spinal cord injuries» together with «epidemiology», and «spinal cord injury»/«spinal cord injuries» together with «epidemiology».
Results. The reported annual incidence of traumatic spinal cord injuries varies from 2.3 per million in a Canadian study to 83 per million in Alaska. The prevalence is given as ranging from 236 per million in India to 1800 per million in the USA. The average age at the time of injury varies from 26.8 years in Turkey to 55.5 years in the USA. The ratio of men to women varies from 0.9 in Taiwan to 12.0 in Nigeria. The most frequent cause of injury is traffic accidents and falls. Patients with traumatic spinal cord injuries have a higher lethality compared with the normal population. The main causes of death today are respiratory problems, heart disease and suicide.
Interpretation. There are large geographical differences in reported incidence, prevalence and lethality. This is attributable to differences in definition, inclusion, classification and patient identification procedures in the various studies, together with geographical and cultural differences and differences in pre-hospital and hospital treatment.