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Background: Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) is recognized as a serious public health problem resulting in significant morbidity, mortality and permanent disability. The present study is aimed to describe the epidemiological characteristics and outcome of patients with traumatic spinal cord injury in rural tertiary referral care center form South India. Material and methods: The present study was conducted at Narayana Medical College and Hospital, Nellore. All patients admitted and managed for traumatic spinal cord injury were retrieved and data collected in a pre-designed proforma. Patient characteristics, details of etiology, mechanism of injury, level of injury, extent of neurological deficits, details of investigations, details of management and immediate outcome were recorded. Results: A total 152 patients were included in the present study. The mean age was 38.45 years and majority the patients were young adult males. The mean hospital stay was 19.12 days. 71.7% percent patients were non-agriculture workers (mainly involved in construction work) and 28.3% patients were farmers. 61.2% of the patients sustained injuries due to fall from height and 34.2% patients sustained injuries due road traffic accidents. Cervical spine injuries were most common (44.1%), followed by thoraco-lumbar region (36.8%) and dorsal spinal region (19.1%). 9 patients expired in post-injury during hospital stay and all of them had complete cervical spinal cord injury. All patients received aggressive rehabilitation care. Conclusion: In accordance with the literature our results reflect that traumatic spinal cord injuries affect young population and can leave these persons with significant functional and physical morbidity. The major limitation of the study is that it is a single institution based and may not reflect the true spectrum of traumatic spinal cord injuries in the population.

Background The intensity of the damage to the nerve fibers is not measured through the severity of the spinal cord injury. Objective To understand the pattern of neurologic features in traumatic spinal cord injuries. Methods This was a case series of the total care of patients with consecutive acute spinal cord injury at different levels during the years 2015 to 2017, from extrication and transportation following the accident to death, or the completion of primary definitive rehabilitation. This work examined demographic and clinical characteristics of 220 consecutive cases of acute spinal injuries with or without neurologic symptoms subjected to conservative and surgical interventions. Age, sex, addiction patterns of smoking and alcohol, presenting symptoms, neurologic status, and postoperative outcomes are compared with the preoperative findings. Results The registry included 220 patients with spinal injury; majority in 41 to 50 years age group (28.6%) and males (77.7%). Nearly one-half had cervical (46.3%) injuries; 84.3% male; comparable proportion of dorsal and lumbar injuries had male dominance. One-fifth of the patients were smokers and alcoholics, all males. Mean hospital stay was 36.7 ± 140.5 days. Majority presented with neck pain (48.9%), radicular pain (56.4%), limb weakness (73.3%), and tingling sensation (47.7%); 14.4% reported tightness in limbs and 18.8% bladder involvement. In postoperative period, symptoms persisted in varied proportions. Significantly of postoperative neck pain was observed more among males (88.5%), yet symptoms that reduced postoperatively were neck pain, limb weakness, and tingling sensation. However, bladder involvement increased significantly. Conclusion The results showed that greater attention should be paid to older and male population that has more spinal cord injuries while comparable to those of the other studies in neurodeficits and clinical features.