Long-term morbidity and mortality after spinal cord injury: 50 years of follow-up

Objective: To determine the long-term mortality rate and the types of morbi dity among all people with spinal cord injuries (SCI) that occurred during the 1948 Israel War of Independence. Method: Chart review and telephone interviews for collecting demographic da ta, injury characteristics, marital status, physical activities, employment , morbidity and mortality. Results: Twenty individuals with SCI (19 males, one female). There was no r egular follow-up during the first 20 years post injury. The most frequent m orbidities were genito-urinary, cardiovascular and decubiti. Ten (50%) had died during this overall follow-up interval. The average age at death was 6 0 years. The cause of death was cardiovascular in six, neoplastic disease i n two, pneumonia in one, and one died from an unknown cause. Conclusions: The data analysis showed that those who died participated less in physical activity and fewer were employed as compared to the survivors.