To discover the frequency of pyrexia in spinal cord injury (SCI) patients in the Hospital for Medicine of the Locomotor System (HMLS/SARAH), a review study was undertaken. For a period of 3 months, all new episodes of fever were recorded. During the study 221.3 patients/month were observed. The age ranged from 14 to 60 years and time of lesion from 1 to 6,264 days: 85 patients were paraplegia or paraparetic, and 44 tetraplegic or tetraparetic. At the beginning of the study 10.8% of the patients had fever. During follow up, we observed a rate of 33. 9 new incidences per 100 patients/month. In 77. 3% only one cause was identified, and in 8% no cause could be defined. The commonest causes were urinary tract infection (UTI) (44.3%), and soft tissue infections (11.4%). Frequent causes of fever in the acute stage other than UTI were complications related to the initial trauma and thromboembolic disease (p < 0.05). These results demonstrate the high incidence of fever in patients with SCI, in addition to providing a useful approach for diagnosis and management.

Traumatic spinal cord lesions have a worldwide high morbidity and mortality, and in many developed countries the problem has received special attention, based on epidemiological studies. In Brazil these studies have been restricted to institutional data. In 1988 a survey conducted by the Integrated System of Traumatology and Orthopaedics, covering 36 public hospitals from 7 Brazilian capitals, revealed a point prevalence of 8.6% (108 patients) with spinal cord injury, aged from 6-56 years; 81% were men. The most frequent causes were traffic accidents (42%), firearms (27%) and falling from heights (15%). The main complications were pressure ulcers (54%) and urinary infections (32%).

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