Abstract

BACKGROUND: Traumatic spinal cord injury is a relatively common neurosurgical emergency. It is a significant cause of 
disability and mortality among the younger age and productive age group.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and outcome of traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI) in 
patients managed at Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital (ISTH.), a tertiary health institution in a rural community in Nigeria.
PATIENTS AND METHODS: This study was a 5-year descriptive retrospective study between January 2015 and December 
2019.The study was carried out for the period of 18 months at Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital (ISTH), from the time of 
ethical approval. Information of patients who had traumatic spinal cord injury that met the inclusion criteria were retrieved, 
collated and analyzed using the statistical packages for the social sciences (SPSS) (version 21, Chicago, Illinois). A test of 
significance of association between dependent and independent variables was done using the Chi-square. A p-value of <0.05 
was considered statistically significant.
RESULTS: From the 1,945 trauma cases managed between 2015-2019, 234 patients had TSCI and 101 patients met the 
inclusion criteria, which shows a prevalence of 5.2%. The main age of the patients was 39.94 years. The most affected age 
group was 18-35 years accounting for 43.6% of cases. Result showed male to female ratio of 4.6:1. Civil servants and drivers 
were most commonly affected. The majority of the cases were due to road traffic accidents (RTA), accounting for 63.4%. 
of cases, while the least was due to gunshot injuries, accounting for just 1%. Mortality rate was 9.9%. Association between 
Glasgow coma scale at admission and Glasgow outcome score at discharge was not statistically significant (p=0.59).
CONCLUSION: Traumatic spinal injury has been shown to affect most commonly the productive age group. The prevalence 
was similar to some studies in Nigeria and lower when compared to that observed from studies in developed countries. There 
was no statistically significant association between Glasgow coma scale at admission and outcome at discharge.