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Spinal cord injury
incidence is estimated to be around
40 cases per million people in the
U.S., though there have not been any
studies in overall spinal cord injury
in the U.S. since 1970. Based on
the estimations, there are around
11,000 new cases of spinal cord injury
each year. Today the number of people
in the U.S. who currently has spinal
cord injury is around 183,000 and
230,000 people.
Spinal cord injury
affects young adults the most, with
55% of spinal cord injury sufferers
being between 16-30. The average
age of a spinal cord injury is 32.1,
but there has been an increase in
the mean age at time of injury since
1973. Around eighty percent of spinal
cord injury patients are male, with
the ratio of injury four to one male
to female.
Spinal cord injury
is most often caused by vehicle crashes,
followed by violence, falls, sports,
and other injuries. Cases of spinal
cord injury as a result of violence
and falls have increased since 1973,
with motor vehicle and sports spinal
cord injury decreasing.
Spinal cord injury
that results in paraplegia has a 40%
average return rate to work, while
30% of spinal cord injury that results
in quadriplegia returns to work.
Paraplegia is spinal cord injury that
is usually located as a lower injury
and affects just the legs and lower
parts of the body. Quadriplegia is
a spinal cord injury that affects
the spine in the cervical or neck
level that can cause paralysis in
both the arms and the legs. Both
forms of spinal cord injury are sometimes
caused as a direct result of a personal
injury.
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