LEVANTAMENTO EPIDEMIOLÓGICO DOS CASOS DE LESÃO MEDULAR ESPINHAL TRAUMÁTICA ATENDIDOS EM UNIDADE DE REABILITAÇÃO DE GOIÂNIA - GOIÁS

Abstract

The present work aims at the epidemiological investigation of traumatic spinal cord injury patients admitted at Dr. Henrique Santillo Rehabilitation Center in Goiânia - Goiás. For that, a descriptive and analytical epidemiological study was conducted, retrospectively, from cases with this injury. The sample of the study was composed by all identified cases from records of the year of 2006, excluding patients with non-traumatic injuries and medical records with lack of data. The data collection was through analysis of fixed records in which the variables were: age, sex, region of origin, family income, education, current occupation, level of injury, classification of injury by the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA), period of injury, presence of rehabilitation in the institution, in another institution, rehabilitation during hospitalization and presence of gait. 27,537 records were consulted of which 47 had no traumatic injury and 156 had traumatic spinal cord injury, composing the sample. In the descriptive distribution of variables there was predominance of males (77.6%), between the age of 20 and 40 years old (57.7%), individuals from the Metropolitan Region of Goiás (53.2%), family income from 0 1 minimum wage (31.1%), level of basic education (61.7%), occupation defined as service rendering (25.7%), traffic accidents (32.7% ) and also the falls (23.7%), thoracic injuries (45.8%), period of injury from 0 1 month (49.4%), lesions with ASIA A (43.3%), rehabilitation in hospital (73.8%), presence of gait in 27.1% of the cases at admission and 58.7% during rehabilitation. The correlations showed significant difference between causes of injury by age (p = 0.006), region of origin (p = 0.046), levels of cervical lesion (p <0,001) and chest lesion (p <0.001), between classification of ASIA by levels of chest injury (p < 0.001) and lumbar injury (p = 0.019), between period of injury by age (p = 0.033), cervical injury (p = 0.013), chest injury (p = 0.030) and ASIA (p = 0.034), between presence of hospitalization for chest injury (p = 0.047) and period of injury (p <0.001), between initial gait by chest injury (p = 0.002) and period of injury (p = 0.002). The characterization of individuals who were exposed to spinal trauma and the investigation of the factors that influenced the occurrence of different causes of injury, in this study, allow more targeted and effective preventive actions. The investigation of characteristics of the traumatic spinal cord injury, of rehabilitation in hospitalization, and of presence of gait, as well as of the relations between these variables, presented in this study, can guide the organization of interventions by the rehab staff. The use of this study, as a source of data for the rehabilitation professional, allows the promotion of health and the structure of therapeutic activities.