DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS OF PERSONS WITH TRAUMATIC SPINAL CORD INJURY IN PAKISTAN

¹Riphah International University, Paraplegic Center Peshawar Hayatabad, ICRC, Peshawar, Pakistan

Background: Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury (TSCI) is a devastating neurological injury, causing paralysis, sensory loss and sphincter disorder in different degrees and indirectly imposes a significant burden on the health care system. Based upon the location and degree of injury, and irrespective of the advanced medical management, the probability of death during the pre-hospital as well as the acute phase is still present.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to find out the causes, distribution, pressure sore and level of injuries of the spinal cord injuries patients belonging to Pakistan.

Methods: Study design: Ø Retrospective (descriptive) study Settings: Ø Paraplegic Center Hayatabad, Peshawar, Pakistan Duration of study: Ø October 2015 till September 2016. SAmple size: Ø 2000 SCI patients Sampling technique: Ø Non Probability Purposive sampling. Inclusion criteria: Ø Patients with traumatic spinal cord Injuries of any level admitted at Paraplegic Centre Hayatabad, Peshawar Pakistan Exclusion criteria: Ø Post-Polio paralysis patients Ø Spina Bifida patients Ø Head injury Data collection procedure: This study is cross sectional survey, sampling technique is non probability purposive sampling. Data is collected from Paraplegic Center Hayatabad patient entry record. Data analysis procedure: Data is analyzed on SPSS version 20.

Results: There are total 2000 spinal cord injury patients (85.6% are male, 14.2% are females) in our study. The mean age is 31.32+ 13.542. Fall from height (27.6 %) and fire arm injury (27.4%) are the major causes. Lower thoracic (43%) and upper thoracic (23%) are more common levels of injury. Pressure sores are present in 41.1%. Most of the patients are belonging to Khyber Pukhtoonkhawa (48.67%) and Afghanistan (27.9 %), and are in age group of 21-40 years (55%).

Conclusion(s): This study shows that males are more affected by spinal cord injury as compared to females. Age range from 21-30 years has highest frequency. Most of patients’ causes are fall from height and fire arm injury. Nearly half of SCI patients (41.1%) suffer from pressure sores developed because of 1. Lack of awareness among the medical staff in the tertiary care hospitals. 2. Insufficient specialized rehabilitation services for the spinal cord injury persons. 3. Huge work load on only one specialized center. 4. Some of the patients belong to remote and backward areas and reach late to the rehab services. Lower thoracic level is highest while the upper cervical is lowest in numbers. Most of the patients belong to KPK while Sindh and Baluchistan having low percentage.

Implications: 1. With the help of the results of the study we can suggest/recommend for appropriate future plaining for the rehabilitation of SCI patients 2. By analyzing this data we can suggest/advocate for making of preventive measure and precautionary care to decrease the incidence of spinal cord injury . 3. From this study we suggest/recommend awareness campaign among the public to decrease the incidence of SCI.

Funding acknowledgements: Non

Topic: Neurology: spinal cord injury

Ethics approval: This study was approved from ethical committee of RCRS (Riphah College of Rehabilitation Sciences Riphah International University Islamabad).

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