ABSTRACT
Objective To explore the rehabilitation outcome and influencing factors of functional recovery in patients with nontraumatic spinal cord injury (NTSCI). Methods A retrospective analysis was done on 49 cases suffering from NTSCI who recepted rehabilitation therapy from December 2014 to November 2016. The main indicator of the rehabilitation effect was Modified Barthel Index (MBI). A total of 49 cases were divided into two groups, effective group (31 cases) and ineffective group (18 cases) according to whether their MBI on discharge had beated the target setted on admission. The following factors:ages, gender, injury causes, injury level, injury grade, injury severity, the types of paralysis, hospitalization time, sick time, complications number, MBI on admission and discharge, operation, early rehabilitation were evaluated by Univarite analysis and Logistic stepwise regression to assess how they influenced rehabilitation outcome. Results After systematically rehabilitation training, MBI had apparent improvement, from (38.98 ± 24.90) score on admission to (56.35 ± 22.69) score on discharge and had statistical significance(Z=-4.95, P=0.00), which showed that rehabilitation training can effectively improve patients′ self-care ability of daily living. Regression analysis found that the MBI on admission (OR=1.044, P=0.010) and hospitalization time(OR=1.044, P=0.039) had a noticeable effect on the rehabilitation outcome, while all the other factors, such as age, sex, injury grade, injury level, injury severity, complications number hadn′t show concrete effect on rehabilitation outcome. Conclusions Patients with NTSCI should have early rehabilitation, medical staff should assess their admission MBI, make a strict rehabilitation training plan to improve rehabilitation efficiency, shorten hospitalization time, improve the patients quality of life.
ABSTRACT
@#Objective To investigate the clinical characteristics of nontraumatic spinal cord injury, including the demographic characteristics,etiology and neurological function. Methods 44 patients with nontraumatic spinal cord injury in the past 4 years were reviewed. Results There were 27 males (61.3%) and 17 females (38.7%) with mean age of 39.85 years (3.5~78). They were followed up for mean of 13.3 (3~23) months. Myelitis (36%) and spinal tumor (including primary and metastatic tumor, 18.1%) were the most common causes, followed by intraspinal tumor (15.9%), vascular disease (13.6%), nontraumatic acute disc herination (6.8%), spinal cord ischemia after non-spinal surgery (4.5%) and hepatic myelopathy (4.5%). Neurological function at the initial admission included tetraplegia in 9 patients, paraplegia in 30 patients, conus medullaris syndrome in 2 patients and cauda equina syndrome in 2 patients. Neurological function of ASIA at the initial admission included A in 14 cases, B in 6, C in 13 and D in 11. 34% patients improved at least one ASIA grade when evaluated at final follow up. Conclusion Nontraumatic etiologies contribute to a significant proportion for spinal cord injury. Patients with nontraumatic spinal cord injury present the clinical characteristics different from traumatic spinal cord injury cases.