• Enrique Bárbara-Bataller, José Luis Méndez-Suárez, Carolina Alemán-Sánchez, Teresa Ramírez-Lorenzo, and Manuel Sosa-Henríquez.
• Unidad de Lesionados Medulares, Servicio de Rehabilitación, Hospital Universitario Insular de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, España. Electronic address: ebb31604@hotmail.com.
• Neurocirugia. 2017 Jan 1; 28 (1): 15-21.

ObjectiveTo evaluate the epidemiological and clinical trends in acute traumatic spinal cord injuries.Material And MethodsA retrospective study was conducted of traumatic spinal cord injury patients in Gran Canaria (Canary Islands, Spain) from 2000 to 2014. Demographic and spinal injury severity trends were analysed by year of injury grouped into 3 periods: 2000-2005, 2006-2010, and 2011-2014.ResultsThe sample included 141 patients. The mean incidence for the entire period was 12 cases/million/year. There was a decrease in cases in the second and third period. While the male/female ratio was 3.8/1 and was maintained in all periods, the mean patient age increased from 38.8 in 2000-5 to 54.5 years in 2011-4 (P<.05). Falls have been the leading cause of spinal cord injury (48.2%), followed by traffic accidents (37.6%). Falls have increased, especially in the older population. Incomplete tetraplegia has been the most prevalent group (30.5%). A vertebral fracture was suffered by 70.3% of all patients, with 93.2% of them requiring surgery.ConclusionsThere has been a decrease in the incidence of traumatic spinal cord injury in recent years. The target population has changed, and the older population is currently the most affected. This reality suggests the need to change the local prevention campaigns for spinal cord injury in the elderly.Copyright © 2016 Sociedad Española de Neurocirugía. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

40 keywords...

hide…