ETIOLOGY AND PATERN OF TRAUMATIC SPINAL CORD INJURIES IN ADULT SUDANIES PATIENTS

¹Khartoumm Teaching Hospital, Khartoum, Sudan, ²National University of Sudan, Khartoum, Sudan

Background: This study was conducted at Khartoum teaching hospital, Khartoum State, Sudan in January 2014 to December 2014 and from January 2015 to February 2015. Sudan has no specialized Spinal Cord Injury services, and medical records are poor. For this and other reasons little research is conducted in Sudan for spinal cord injury.

Purpose: To identify the etiology and pattern of spinal cord injuries in Sudanese patients.

Methods: Retrospective, an observational case-finding hospital based study, carried out in Khartoum Teaching Hospital in the Departments of Medical Records and Orthopedics, 40 patient´s files were collected and reviewed.

Results: It is noted that 75% of participant ages were less than 40 years; 90% were males, 10% females, falling down comprises the dominant cause of trauma among the studied sample (52%), followed by Road Traffic Accident (22.5%), falling objects on the back, (10%), trauma on the back (non specific) (7.5%), gunshot injuries (5%), diving injuries (2.5%), thoracic spine affected in (35%), followed by Lumbar spine injuries (32.5%), and cervical spine (25%), and finally the combined thoracic & lumbar spines injuries reported (7.5%).

Conclusion(s): The majority of the SCI are young males and the biggest cause is falls. Further detail on the cause of falls indicated in the medical files would provide more in depth material of research and implications for future researches.

Implications: This research has implications at two levels: 1. Awareness to health authorities about evidence-based needs on SCI, from prevention (falls as the majority cause) to treatment and rehabilitation. 2. Awareness to the medical professions towards a better organization, structure and content of the medical records. They should provide more information. Interdisciplinary team efforts to reach the two above is needed (including the integration of more Physiotherapy professionals in the SCI teams).

Funding acknowledgements: None

Topic: Neurology: spinal cord injury

Ethics approval: Permission from Khartoum Teaching Hospital management was granted. There is no ethics system to submit research in the structure.

All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.