Establishment of a clinicopathological database for traumatic human spinal injury

Abstract

The establishment of a comprehensive retrospective clinicopathological database of patients who died with traumatic spinal injury is described. All necropsy patients examined from 1957 onwards, at the Royal Perth Hospital (RPH) with either a spinal cord or spinal column injury or both were included in the study. There are two broad categories of material. Firstly, those patients with a spinal cord injury (SCI) who survived the initial episode and were treated in the Sir George Bedbrook Department of Paraplegia, RPH. Secondly there are those who suffered either a vertebral column or SCI and died immediately, referred by the Coroner. In most cases, in both groups the spinal injury was not the direct cause of death. The catchment area includes the entire state of Western Australia. The database is essentially a neuropathological resource and is not intended to have any direct epidemiological implications. The information in the database is available for clinicopathological research such as: (a) To assist the clinician in planning the bedside management of patients with SCI. (b) To assess and quantify preserved anatomical structures for correlation with residual physiology in human SCI as a foundation for restorative neurology. (c) To define the spinal cord lesion in detail as a framework for the application of the many recent advances in basic neurobiology toward the reconstruction of the injured spinal cord. (d) To provide clinical data for use in conjunction with the tissue bank of spinal injuries established at RPH, in further research.