Objective: The patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) suffered by a lot of complications that
influence the quality of life both physically and mentally. The purpose of this study was to
evaluate the epidemiology of patients with spinal cord injury in incidence of the complication
according to the injury level and period.
Method: Retrospective study was done in 554 patients with SCI who discharged from Yonsei
University Medical Center from January, 1987 to December, 1996. We investigated the incidence
of each complication such as respiratory, cardiovascular, genitourinary, musculoskeletal, and
dermatologic complications according to the neurologic level and each period (1987∼1991, 1992∼
1996).
Results: Among the 554 cases, urologic complication (40.3%) was the most common
complication followed by dermatologic (39.0%), musculoskeletal (33.6%), cardiovascular (27.1%)
and so on. The most common complications of each system were autonomic dysreflexia (13.2%)
in cardiovascular, pneumonia (9.6%) in respiratory, contracture (27.8%) in musculoskeletal,
urinary tract infection (34.3%) in urologic, hemorrhoid in gastrointestinal, and central pain
(24.0%) in neurogenic complications. The most common site of pressure sore was sacral area
(58.9%). There was no significant difference in each complication according to the injury period.
Conclusion: Urologic complication was the most prevalent in patients with SCI followed by
dermatologic, musculoskeletal and so on. These basic results would be helpful for prevention
and management of the complication of SCI.