Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Jul;42(4):423-429.
doi: 10.1080/10790268.2017.1389836. Epub 2017 Oct 23.

Epidemiology of traumatic spinal cord injury in childhood and adolescence in Galicia, Spain: report of the last 26-years

E Canosa-Hermida  1   2 , R Mora-Boga  1   2 , J J Cabrera-Sarmiento  1   2 , M E Ferreiro-Velasco  1 , S Salvador-de la Barrera  1 , A Rodríguez-Sotillo  1 , A Montoto-Marqués  1   3
Affiliations

Epidemiology of traumatic spinal cord injury in childhood and adolescence in Galicia, Spain: report of the last 26-years

E Canosa-Hermida et al. J Spinal Cord Med. 2019 Jul.

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the characteristics of traumatic spinal cord injury in children of Galicia (Spain).

Design: Descriptive and retrospective study.

Methods: Data extracted from the internal registry of the Spinal Cord Injury Unit and the patient's medical records, between March 1988 and December 2014. Inclusion criteria: patients aged ≤ 17 years with a traumatic spinal cord injury.

Outcome measures: Total patients, percentages, incidence, ASIA scale results and improvement.

Results: A total of 68 patients were included. The incidence was 5.6 cases/1,000,000 inhabitants/year. The mean age was 14.4 years (median: 16). Only 25% were younger than 15. Male patients accounted for 73.5% of the total. The main cause were traffic accidents (60.3%; n = 41), being higher (77.8%) in children ≤ 10 years. Other etiologies included falls (19.1%), diving accidents (16.2%) and other causes (4.4%). Eleven patients (16.2%) had injuries classified as SCIWORA, 8 (72.7%) of them aged ≤ 10 years. The mean age of the SCIWORA group was 7.5 years versus 15.7 years in the non-SCIWORA group (P < 0.001). Half (50%) of these patients had a complete spinal cord injury and, of these, 64.6% were paraplegic.

Conclusions: Traumatic spinal cord injuries are rare in children, and most cases occur between 15 and 17 years. Unlike in adults, SCIs in children mostly involve the thoracic spine. Most patients aged ≤ 10 years have SCIWORA. The most common etiology continues to be traffic accidents, although sports accidents prevail among adolescent patients.

Keywords: SCIWORA; children; etiology; pediatric; spinal cord injury.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Annual distribution of traumatic spinal cord injury in the pediatric population.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Distribution of traumatic spinal cord injury in the pediatric population by etiology
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Distribution of ASIA impairment scales.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Saunders LL, Selassie A, Cao Y, Zebracki K, Vogel LC.. Epidemiology of Pediatric Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury in a Population-Based Cohort, 1998–2012. Topics in Spinal Cord Injury Rehab 2015;21(4):325–32. doi: 10.1310/sci2104-325 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kirshblum SC, Waring W, Biering-Sorensen F, et al. . Reference for the 2011 revision of the international standards for neurological classification of spinal cord injury. J Spinal Cord Med. 2011;34(6):547–54. doi: 10.1179/107902611X13186000420242 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. IGE Instituto Galego de Estadística Santiago de Compostela: Xunta de Galicia 2016. Available from http://www.ige.eu.
    1. Montoto-Marqués A, Ferreiro-Velasco ME, Salvador-de la Barrera S, et al. . Epidemiology of traumatic spinal cord injury in Galicia, Spain: trends over a 20-year period. Spinal Cord 2017;55(6):588–94. doi: 10.1038/sc.2017.13 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Lee BB, Cripps RA, Fitzharris M, Wing PC.. The global map for traumatic spinal cord injury epidemiology: update 2011, global incidence rate. Spinal Cord 2014; 52(2):110–6. doi: 10.1038/sc.2012.158 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources