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Spinal cord injury

from Medical topics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2014

By
Paul Kennedy
Edited by
Susan Ayers ,
Andrew Baum ,
Chris McManus ,
Stanton Newman ,
Kenneth Wallston ,
John Weinman  and
Robert West
Paul Kennedy
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Susan Ayers
Affiliation:
University of Sussex
Andrew Baum
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
Chris McManus
Affiliation:
St Mary's Hospital Medical School
Stanton Newman
Affiliation:
University College and Middlesex School of Medicine
Kenneth Wallston
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University School of Nursing
John Weinman
Affiliation:
United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas's
Robert West
Affiliation:
St George's Hospital Medical School, University of London
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Summary

Aetiology, incidence and prevalence

The successful rehabilitation and community reintegration of people with spinal cord injury (SCI) has only occurred in the past 60 years. Until rehabilitation was pioneered by Guttmann at Stoke Mandeville in 1944, 90% of persons with a spinal cord injury died within the first year. Now, most industrialized economies provide comprehensive treatment and rehabilitation care for people with traumatic and non-traumatic injuries. Almost half (47%) of traumatic spinal cord injuries are caused by road traffic accidents (see ‘Road traffic accidents’). Domestic and industrial falls are the cause of 27%, and between 15 and 20% are from sporting injuries. In the UK, 5% are caused by self-harm and 0.5% from acts of violence. In the USA, 15% of injuries are caused by criminal assault (Duff & Kennedy, 2003; Go et al., 1995). Causes of non-traumatic injuries include infective diseases, ischaemic insults, neoplastic disorders and multiple sclerosis (see also ‘Multiple sclerosis’ and ‘Stroke’).

There are four males for every one female spinal cord injury. The mean age is 28 and the mode is 19. The annual incidence of spinal cord injury in the UK, like most other European countries, is between 10 and 15 per million; in the USA it is thought to be between 30 and 40 and in Japan, 27 per million. There are an estimated 40 000 people in the UK and 200 000 in the USA with spinal cord injury.

Type
Chapter
Information
Cambridge Handbook of Psychology, Health and Medicine , pp. 892 - 895
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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