Review of spinal cord injuries in Ireland

Abstract

Study Design:Prospective data collection on all patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) admitted for a comprehensive management programme. Objectives: To examine the epidemiology of SCI in Ireland over 1 year. Setting: Ireland's National Spinal Cord Injury Centre. Methods: Systematic data collection on all patients admitted with SCI for management. Results: A total of 46 patients (40 males) were admitted from January to December 2000; median age was 37 years (range 6-82 years). In all, 23 of the patients presented with cervical injuries, 19 patients had thoracic injuries. In all, 18 patients had complete injuries (American spinal injuries association (ASIA)). Motor vehicle collisions were the cause of 50% of SCI. Conclusions: The incidence of SCI in Ireland is 13.1 per million population. Demographic data from this study can go towards improving care for patients with SCI and also in the prevention of SCI.

Epidemiology of traumatic spinal cord injury in Tianjin, China

“…MVCs were the leading cause of TSCI in developed countries in the few last decades, 2,5,7,14 However, in our study, falls were the main causes of TSCI, similar to that of other developing countries. 15,16 Low falls were more common in those over 75 years of age (80.0% in this age group), followed by those in 61-to 75-year group (70.2%).…”

“…In Australia, O'Connor 3 showed the agestandardized SCI incidence rate for 14.5 per million persons in 1998/1999. Among European countries, the incidence rates were lower relativelyFnamely, 13.8 for Finland ), 4 13.1 for Ireland (2000), 5 12.7 for Turkey (1992) 6 and 19.4 for France (2000), 7 respectively. In developing countries, systematic epidemiological studies were relatively less.…”

The global map for traumatic spinal cord injury epidemiology: update 2011, global incidence rate

“…These Green and Yellow Zone countries provided some national incidence data. [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] There were larger numbers of regional-specific incidence data, however globally there were large regions without any published incidence data. To rectify this, regression modelling was developed and used to provide spinal cord injury (SCI) estimates of TSCI incidence using known countries' TSCI incidence rates, populations at risk and a range of measured economic indicators.…”

Incidence of traumatic spinal cord injury in Thessaloniki, Greece and Stockholm, Sweden: a prospective population-based study

“…A similar ratio of 7:1 was found in Ireland, where it was attributed to the small size of the sample. 6 Possibly, the male predominance reflects a cultural as well as a gender-and agespecific risk-taking behaviour in the use of motor vehicles.…”