CHRONIC SPINAL-CORD INJURY

In 1927 Harvey Cushing described the outcome for soldiers with spinal cord injuries sustained during World War I: “Fully 80 percent died in the first few weeks in consequence of infection from bedsores and catheterization…. Only those cases survived in which the spinal cord lesion was a partial one”1. Today, this picture has been completely reversed, and in well-organized systems of care for trauma and spinal cord injuries 94 percent of patients survive the initial hospitalization2,3. National data on people with spinal cord injuries suggest a population of over 200,000, which will increase each. © 1994, Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.