gms | German Medical Science

Objective: Traumatic, infectious or tumorous involvement of spinal cord may cause acute or chronically progredient progressive paraparesis and paraplegia. Patients face pain, neurological deficits, social and financial consequences. Secondary complications additionally cause higher morbidity or mortality. Our ongoing clinical study, investigated the occurrence and prophylaxis of secondary complications in paraplegic patients.

Methods: Currently 293 patients were included into the study. Retrospective data analysis and statistical evaluation was performed according to clinical files and personnel communication.

Results: In addition to neurological deficits, all of the 293 patients experienced some kind of secondary complication. Urinary insufficiency and urinary infection, respiratory insufficiency, pain, and bedsore were the most common complications. 24 % of patients received urinary infections that were treated with antibiotics. 18 % of all patients showed incontinence, whereas 14 % of patients experienced other kind of urinary bladder dysfunction. Both bedsore and respiratory insufficiency were observed in 13 % of the patients. Whereas 8 % of patients suffered from dysphagia, 2 % developed aspiration of stomach contents. Deep vein thrombosis was observed in 2 % of patients and even 6 % died from their complications.

Conclusion: Although patients with paralysis face a high competence in medical care, they still suffer from a high amount of secondary complications despite all professional effort. Secondary complications therefore need to be in focus of medical staff. Not only paralysis symptoms have to be taken care for but also complications still must be accounted for. Our study will be ongoing up to a full amount of 600 patients to evaluate a critical view on secondary complications over a patient series above several years.