Cape Town - As school holiday season begins on Monday spinal injuries could also start to climb in Cape Town, if new research into the city’s spinal cord injuries is anything to go by.
The study, done at Groote Schuur Hospital’s Acute Spinal Cord Injury Unit, showed that school holidays were linked to an increase in spinal injuries - with young people more likely to suffer injuries, mainly as a result of car crashes.
The increase in the number of cars on provincial roads was linked to a rise in the number of car crashes - the single most contributing factor to spinal injuries.
December was the busiest time of the year for the unit - the only specialised unit for the management of patients with acute spinal injuries in the Western Cape’s public healthcare sector.
The study, which has been published in the SA Medical Journal, profiled more than 2 000 spinal cord injury patients who were admitted at that unit between April 2003 and March last year and identified seasonal trends and looked at whether specific causes of accidents were on the incline or decline.
Researchers found that car crashes were the biggest cause of spinal harm, accounting for 44.6 percent of all injuries followed by violence, such as gunshot wounds, stabbings and assault at 27 percent and falls at 15.5 percent.
Passengers were more likely to have spinal injuries, accounting for 56 percent of total car crashes while drivers accounted for 25.6 and followed by pedestrians at 18 percent.
Of the 2 042 patients sampled almost 60 percent had neck injuries, 27 percent had chest injuries while 11 percent had lower back injuries.
Men were more likely to get injuries with a ratio of 84 percent compared to 16 percent of females.
Young people were also more likely to get injuries with the largest category of patients (33.5 percent) aged between 21 and 30, followed by 31 to 40 at 25 percent and 16.6 percent of 41 to 50 group.
On admission most patients were partially paralysed at 68 percent while about 32 percent of patients were completely paralysed.
Despite the severity of injuries that were admitted to that unit every year, in only 2 percent of spinal injury did patients died.
Dr Johan Sothmann, lead researcher of the study, said apart from December, an analysis of injuries for the past 11 years showed that other peak periods were during mid-year school holiday seasons. June tracked after December holidays while March and September holiday seasons were similar in numbers.
“The Western Cape is a popular holiday destination. Unfortunately the increased traffic on the roads tends to give rise to a number of motor vehicle accidents too,” he said.
Young men in particular, were mostly injured due to their risk-taking nature.
Sothmann said findings of car crashes as a major cause of spinal injuries showed a need for prevention strategies, including those targeted at pedestrians.
The latest data also showed that there was also a need for additional beds to be made available to the unit during peak periods as the demand for the unit’s services increased dramatically.
Cape Times