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Chapter-54 Complications of Spinal Cord Injury

BOOK TITLE: Spinal Infections and Trauma

Author
1. Chhabra Harvinder Singh
2. Sangondimath Gururaj
3. Gautam Darshan
4. Patel Nishit
ISBN
9789350250754
DOI
10.5005/jp/books/11196_54
Edition
1/e
Publishing Year
2011
Pages
44
Author Affiliations
1. Indian Spinal Injuries Centre, Vasant Kunj, Sector-C, New Delhi, India, Indian Spinal Injuries Center, New Delhi, India
2. Indian Spinal Injuries Centre, Vasant Kunj, Sector-C, New Delhi, India
3. Indian Spinal Injuries Centre, Vasant Kunj, Sector-C, New Delhi, India, Indian Spinal Injury Center, New Delhi, India
4. Indian Spinal Injuries Centre, Vasant Kunj, Sector-C, New Delhi, India, Indian Spinal Injuries Center, New Delhi, India
Chapter keywords

Abstract

Complications of spinal cord injury (SCI) add to its devastating and detrimental effect of loss of motor, sensory and autonomic function, which affects the spinal injured health, social participation and quality of life. Incidence of complications is associated with factors like age at the time of injury, gender, smoking status (smoker vs. nonsmoker), body mass index, cause (traumatic vs. nontraumatic), level/completeness of injury, physical capacity, activities and functional outcome. Complications can form a disappointing set-back during rehabilitation, may interfere with the start of active rehabilitation and frequently lead to rehospitalization. Additionally, complications are an important cause of morbidity and mortality following SCI and increase the cost of the treatment substantially. For example, in the United States the cost of treatment of bedsores causes an excess burden of 55 billion dollars per year. In order to optimize the individual rehabilitation process and outcome, it is important to predict and prevent complications or to recognize and treat them. Vice versa is also true that improper management of SCI patient increases the incidence of complications of SCI substantially. The most common complications are spasticity, respiratory/urinary tract infections (UTIs) and pressure sores. Complications after SCI can be classified as early and late complications.

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