Mortality in patients with traumatic spinal cord injury: descriptive analysis of 62 deceased subjects.

Item does not contain fulltextSTUDY DESIGN: Retrospective study. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the causes of death in patients who were /= 10 years. Neurological assessments were performed according to the American Spinal Injury Association scale. Data on causes of death were analyzed using the ICD-10 classifications. Differences were calculated using the Mann-Whitney and chi-square tests. RESULTS: A total of 100 patients, with 38 and 62 surviving /= 10 years, respectively, were included. No significant differences in causes of death were identified between these two groups. In patients surviving >/= 10 years, paraplegia was associated with a higher life expectancy compared with tetraplegia, 34 and 25 years (p = 0.008), respectively, and the leading causes of death were septicemia (n = 14), ischemic heart disease (n = 10), neoplasms (n = 9), cerebrovascular diseases (n = 5), and other forms of heart diseases (n = 5). Septicemia, influenza/pneumonia, and suicide were the leading causes of death in tetraplegics, whereas ischemic heart disease, neoplasms, and septicemia were the leading causes of death in paraplegia. CONCLUSION: Our monocentric study showed that in 62 deceased patients with SCI, the leading causes of death were septicemia, cardiovascular diseases, neoplasms, and cerebrovascular diseases. In addition, no significant differences were identified between causes of death among patients surviving /= 10 years post-injury.1 september 201