Motor vehicle crashes no longer represent the leading cause of traumatic spinal cord injuries in the United States, according to a new report from Johns Hopkins. Instead, slip and fall incidents—especially among the elderly—are generating the largest number of serious spinal injuries. The same research shows, moreover, that rates of these injuries—whose symptoms range from temporary numbness to full-blown paralysis—are rising fastest among older people, suggesting that efforts to prevent falls in the elderly could significantly curb the number of spinal injuries.

The recent rash of severe weather affecting a large swath of the U.S. (and the resultant icy conditions on sidewalks and other common areas) mean that arguably more seniors will be vulnerable to falls.

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

For their study, the Johns Hopkins researchers analyzed a nationally representative sample of 43,137 adults treated in hospital emergency rooms for spinal cord trauma in the U.S. between 2007 and 2009. While the incidence among those aged 18 to 64 ranged from 52.3 per million in 2007 to 49.9 per million in 2009, the incidence per million in those 65 and older increased from 79.4 in 2007 to 87.7 in 2009.

Falls were the leading cause of traumatic spinal cord injury over the three-year study period (41.5 percent), followed by motor vehicle crashes (35.5 percent). Fall-related spinal cord injuries increased during the study period overall. Among the elderly, they increased from 23.6 percent to 30 percent of injuries.

Age and Injury

The average age of adults with a traumatic spinal cord injury in a previous study that covered the years 2000 to 2005 was 41; the new study suggests it is now 51 years of age. Researchers say that even when taking into account injury severity and other illnesses experienced by the patients, older adults with traumatic spinal cord injury are four times more likely to die in the emergency room from such an injury compared to younger adults. If they survive and are admitted, they are six times more likely to die during their inpatient stay.

While researchers can't pinpoint the exact reason falls have surpassed car crashes as a cause of traumatic spinal injuries, they believe it may be a combination of the general aging of the population, the more active lifestyles of many Americans over 65, and airbags and seatbelt laws that allow drivers and passengers to survive crashes.

“We are seeing a changing face in the epidemiology of spinal cord injury,” explains Edward R. Hammond, M.D., Ph.D., a research associate at the International Center for Spinal Cord Injury at Kennedy Krieger Institute and another of the study's leaders.

The spinal cord injuries captured by the data for this study were those serious enough to land the patient in the emergency room and included temporary bruising to severed or permanently damaged cords that cause paralysis, difficulty breathing, an inability to fill and empty the bladder and other motor disabilities.

According to the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center, lifetime costs of care for someone with a serious spinal cord injury can range from $1 million to $5 million, depending on the age of the person at the time of injury and the severity of the injury. Improvements in rehab care are leading to longer life expectancy among patients with spinal cord injury—and bigger medical bills.

Other Johns Hopkins researchers involved in the study include Adil H. Haider, M.D., M.P.H.; Christopher J. Abularrage, M.D.; Daniel Becker, M.D.; Nitasha Dhiman, M.S.P.H.; Omar Hyder, M.D., M.S.; and James H. Black III, M.D.

Special Reports /

Falls Surpass Auto Crashes As Leading Cause of Traumatic Spinal Cord Injuries

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