Epidemiology of spinal cord injuries: a study in the Spinal Unit, Siriraj Hospital, Thailand, 1997-2000.

A prospective study of 83 patients with spinal cord injuries admitted to the Spinal Unit, Siriraj Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand from January 1997 to December 2000 was conducted. The average age was 33.2 +/- 11.7 years (range from 10 to 68 years) with a male: female ratio of 4 : 1. Most subjects (83.2%) were aged between 16-45 years. About half of them had no associated injuries and no financial problems. Three-fourths of the spinal injuries were caused by traffic accidents (49.4 and 25.3% car and motorcycle respectively). The other two causes were falls (16.9%) and gunshot wounds (8.4%). The neurological classification was as follows: 34 (41.0%) patients had ASIA D grade of injury, 28 (33.7%) were paraplegic with ASIA A, B or C grade and 21 (25.3%) were tetraplegic with ASIA A, B, or C grade. Traffic accidents most frequently resulted in an incomplete ASIA D grade (40.3%). Males were more predominant for all causes of injury especially motorcycle accidents. The average Barthel Index score was 24.3 +/- 24.7 and 51.9 +/- 31.8 at admission and discharge respectively. The prevalence of depression was 24.1 per cent. The average length of stay for the depressed and non-depressed groups was 117.4 +/- 59.1 and 73.4 +/- 54.4 days respectively.