Treatment and Rehabilitation of Patients with Spinal Cord Lesions

Abstract

The incidence of traumatic spinal cord lesion (SCL) is between 10 and 50 per million per year in Europe. Most persons with traumatic SCL are men. The age has increased over recent decades from late teens or twenties to an average age in the thirties to forties. Most often they are injured in traffic accidents and falls. Tetraplegia (cervical SCL) and paraplegia (more caudal SCL) occur with equal frequency. The incidence of non-traumatic nonprogressive SCL is higher than for traumatic SCL. The causes of non-traumatic SCL are slipped discs, infections, arteriovenous malformations (AVMs), tumours, spinal stenosis, etc.