A 70-year observational study conducted in the UK has reported the trends in survival after traumatic spinal cord injury. The team studied 5,483 patients injured between 1943 and 2010, and observed a significant improvement in life expectancy between 1950 and 1980, after which survival plateaued, followed by a small improvement after 2010. The team also used the data to provide current life expectancy estimates for individuals with spinal cord injury, which range from 18.4% to 88.4% compared with the general population, depending on sex, current age and type of injury.