TRENDS IN THE TREATMENT OF PATIENTS WITH SPINAL-CORD LESIONS SEEN WITHIN A PERIOD OF 20 YEARS IN GERMAN CENTERS

Twenty-one special centers are running treatment of spinal cord injuri es in Germany. Their heads represent a study group to coordinate metho ds and to investigate results collecting data since 1976. So we have e xperiences for about 20 years. 1500 recent cases are treated per annum . Seventy-five percent got their lesion by trauma. Beside these there is only a little capacity to treat patients with non-traumatic or cong enital lesions (25%). Sixty-two percent are para-, 38% are tetraplegic , 28% female, 2% are children. Within 22,212 recent cases 35% got thei r injury by traffic, 14% at work. Sports and diving caused 4%, suicide 5% and killing attempts 1%. Though numbers since 1976 are decreasing, traffic and work are main reasons causing spinal injuries. Readmissio n reasons are mainly disorders of soft tissues (23%) and the urinary t ract (21%). Out-patients are checked in 67% of all cases. All investig ation data represent very stable trends within the last 20 years. Alto gether the special centers carried out treatment and consultation in a bout 22,000 recent cases, 45,000 readmissions and 80,000 out-patients.