Clinical and sociodemographic profiles of persons with spinal cord injury

AIM: To collect and correlate the sociodemographic and clinical details of persons with spinal cord injury who were admitted to the Department of Neurological Rehabilitation. OBJECTIVES: To assess the sociodemographic characteristics and collect the clinical profiles of persons with spinal cord injury and to correlate their sociodemographic and clinical details. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective file review was done over a period of 2 years from January 2017 to December 2018 to study patients with spinal cord injury who were admitted to the Neurological Rehabilitation ward of NIMHANS, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. RESULTS: A total of 60 patients were admitted with spinal cord injury. The mean age was 32.39 years and majority of the patients were young married males. Most of them belong to the low socioeconomic status and are housewives and daily wage laborers. Falls and road traffic accidents are the causes for the injury. Anxiety and depression are high among traumatic spinal cord injury patients. CONCLUSION: This information may contribute to prevent SCI and to improve the quality of life of patients with SCI. It has implications for the primary care physicians who are at first contact to identify and refer them for specialized super speciality district hospitals for further treatment as they pose a great threat to public health and their proportions are increasing. It is imperative that trauma care is included in graduate medical training as well to facilitate early intervention after initial screening.