A Survey on Spinal Cord Injury Persons in Suwon City

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To collect the informations of the traumatic spinal cord injury persons in Suwon city. METHOD: Seventy-five traumatic spinal cord injury persons were evaluated by the neurological level, American Spinal Injury Association scale, Functional Independence Measure (FIM), Craig Handicap Assessment and Reporting Technique (CHART), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and questionnaire on their voiding methods, complications, etc. RESULTS: The leading cause of 75 persons with traumatic spinal cord injury was a traffic accident. Among them, paraplegics were 46 persons. The most common complication was a pressure sore which was also the leading cause of their rehospitalization. Twenty-six persons voided by reflex. Among five dimensions of CHART, the physical independence score was the highest and the economic self sufficiency score was the lowest. The total CHART scores were significantly correlated with BDI scores, FIM scores, and level of injury. CONCLUSION: This study revealed that physical impairment, disability and depression affect the handicaps of spinal cord injury persons. These data could be used to develop a social rehabilitation program for the spinal cord injury persons in the community.