Abstract
To survey the situation of traumatic spinal cord injuries (SCI) in Japan, the SCI Prevention Committee of the Japanese Medical Society of Paraplegia sent out by mail study charts in the form of questionnaires to institutions nationwide. Using the statistical method of the nationwide epidemiological survey described by Hashimoto et al,1 the annual estimated incidence was obtained from the number of patients registered, and from the questionnaire reply rate at each prefecture. The number of registered patients in 1990 was 3465 and the mean reply rate was 56.6%. There were 2665 registered patients with a neurological deficit (Frankel A-D) and the annual SCI incidence was 39.4 per million.
The male:female ratio was 4.3:1 and the ratio of cervical cord injures to those caudal to the cervical cord was 2.9:1. The mean age at the time of injury was 48.5 years. The cause most frequently seen was traffic accidents, the second most frequent being falls from a height. Besides those two, sports injuries and falls on level ground were the third most frequent causes of SCI in the young generation and in elderly people respectively.
References
Hashimoto S, Fukutomi K, Nagai M, Nakamura Y, Yanagawa H, Sasaki R, Ohno Y, Aoki K (1991) Response bias in the nationwide epidemiological survey of an intractable disease in Japan. J Epidemiol 1: 27–30.
Frankel H L, Hancock D O, Hyslop G, Melzak J, Michaelis L S, Ungar G H et al (1969) The value of postural reduction in the initial management of closed injuries of the spine with paraplegia and tetraplegia. Paraplegia 7: 179–192.
Kraus J F, Franti C E, Riggins R S, Richards D, Borhani N O (1975) Incidence of traumatic spinal cord lesions. J Chron Dis 28: 471–492.
Chen C F, Lien I N (1985) Spinal cord injuries in Taipei, Taiwan, 1978–1981. Paraplegia 23: 364–370.
Burke D C, Toscano J (1987) Incidence and distribution of spinal cord injury. Menzies Foundation Technical Report 1: 13–47.
Walsh J E (1987) Actuarial research into physical disablement. Report of research project. 1: 1–114.
Koning W, Frowein R A (1989) Incidence of spinal cord injury in the Federal Republic of Germany. Neurosurg Rev 12: 562–566.
Biering-Sorensen F, Pedersen V, Clausen S (1990) Epidemiology of spinal cord lesions in Denmark. Paraplegia 28: 105–118.
DeLilla T, Eddy S, Cooper T, Hensley K (1990) Five year summary on spinal cord injury statistics, Florida. Private communication.
Kraus J F (1980) Injury to the head and spinal cord. The epidemiological relevance of the medical literature published from 1960 to 1978. J Neurosurg 53: S3–S10.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Shingu, H., Ikata , T., Katoh, S. et al. Spinal cord injuries in Japan: a nationwide epidemiological survey in 1990. Spinal Cord 32, 3–8 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.1994.2
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.1994.2
Keywords
- spinal cord injury
- epidemiology
- incidence
- prevention
- Japan
This article is cited by
-
Factors affecting survival of patients in the acute phase of upper cervical spine injuries
Archives of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery (2017)
-
Epidemiology of spinal injuries in the United Arab Emirates
World Journal of Emergency Surgery (2015)
-
Incidence of traumatic spinal cord injury worldwide: a systematic review
European Spine Journal (2015)
-
Normal morphology, age-related changes and abnormal findings of the cervical spine. Part II: magnetic resonance imaging of over 1,200 asymptomatic subjects
European Spine Journal (2012)
-
Age influences rehabilitative outcomes in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI)
Aging Clinical and Experimental Research (2011)
