Anemia in the Acute Phase of Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Anemia had been reported to be one of the common complications in the spinal cord injured patients. The purposes of this study were to investigate the incidence of anemia, its relating factors and efficacy of rehabilitation therapy in the acute spinal cord injured patients. METHOD: A retrospective study was performed in the 103 acute spinal cord injured patients. We monitored serum hemoglobin, serum hematocrit, serum albumin and protein and change of the weight in the acute spinal cord injured patients at our rehabilitation department. RESULTS: The incidence of anemia was 62.1% (64/103). According to the level of injury, the incidence of anemia was 65.2% in cervical cord injury, 62.5% in thoracic cord injury and 46.2% in lumbar cord injury. The incidence of anemia was not different significantly by the severity of injury. The relating factors of anemia were urinary tract infection, pressure sore, acute bleeding, pneumonia, hypoalbuminemia, hypoproteinemia. Among these, hypoproteinemia was statistically related to anemia. The efficacy of functional independence measure (FIM) was significantly lower in the anemic group. CONCLUSION: Therefore we should concern about the prevention and treatment of anemia in the spinal cord injured patients.