Introduction: Assessment of spinal cord injured patients helps to determine the neurological impairment in a precise and unified way and to estimate in a reliable way, the prognosis of rehabilitation by tracing adequate objectives for the neurorehabilitation treatment.
Objective: To characterize those patients with spinal cord lesion hospitalized at our clinic, starting from the determination of the level and intensity of the spinal cord injury, as well as the level of functional independence.
Material and method: All the patients hospitalized at the International Center of Neurologic Restoration (CIREN) with traumatic spinal cord injury were evaluated from March to June 2008. All international standards were applied for the neurologic classification of the spinal cord injured patient (ASIA-American Spinal Injury Association) and Barthel’s Functional Independence Scale. The groups were classified according to the intensity and level of the lesion.
Results: 25 patients with traumatic spinal cord lesions were evaluated. 21 patients out of 25 were classified as paraplegic and the remaining four as tetraplegic according to the intensity of the lesion, the neurologic level and functional independence.
Conclusions: The patients with post-traumatic spinal cord lesion were characterized in a precise way. Paraplegia predominated as well as lesions in men. There was a relation between the degree of neurological impairment and functional independence.
