Spinal Cord Injuries Among Older Adults On the Rise in U.S

A latest study reveals that traumatic spinal cord injuries have increased in the U.S. The rise is mostly attributed to fall-related injuries among senior citizens, rather than car crashes.

The new Johns Hopkins study revealed that rate of spinal cord injuries has increased in older Americans. Symptoms of the injury vary from temporary numbness to complete paralysis. Researchers say that lowering falls in elderly people could result in lower number of spinal cord injuries in the country.

"We have demonstrated how costly traumatic spinal cord injury is and how lethal and disabling it can be among older people. It's an area that is ripe for prevention," Shalini Selvarajah, M.D., M.P.H., a postdoctoral surgical research fellow at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine said in a statement.  

For this study the researchers looked at a sample of 43,137 U.S. adults that were treated at the emergency rooms for spinal cord injury between 2007 and 2009.

Over the three year study period, the researchers noticed that the incidence of the injury in people of age 18-64 was 52.3 per million in 2007 and 49.9 per million in 2009. Whereas in those above 65 years of age,  the incidence per million grew from 79.4 in 2007 to 87.7 in 2009.

Researchers found that fall related spinal injuries soared during the study time. In the elderly group, it increased from 23.6 percent to 30 percent of injuries.

When compared to the younger people, the older patients were four times more likely to die in the ER for spinal cord related injuries. If these elderly people survive and are admitted in the hospital, they are six times more likely to die during the inpatient stay. The researchers failed to understand why fall related injuries are the leading cause of severe spinal injuries.

"We are seeing a changing face in the epidemiology of spinal cord injury," says Edward R. Hammond, M.D., Ph.D., a research associate at the International Center for Spinal Cord Injury at Kennedy Krieger Institute.

The finding was published in the journal Neurotrauma.