title: Survival after nontraumatic spinal cord lesions in Israel.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess survival in patients with nontraumatic spinal cord lesions (SCL).
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective cohort study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Spinal department at a rehabilitation hospital in Israel.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients with nontraumatic SCL (N=1085) admitted between 1962 and 2000.
  
  
  METHODS
  Demographic, clinical, and mortality data were collected from hospital charts and from the Population Registry of the Israel Ministry of Internal Affairs.
  
  
  METHODS
  Survival rates and mortality risk factors. Measures were estimated by using the product limit (Kaplan-Meier) method and the Cox model.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Maximal survival time was 57 years. Median accumulated survival time was 24 years. Survival was significantly affected by lesion etiology, age, gender, severity of lesion, and recent decade of lesion onset; survival tended to be shorter in patients with higher level SCL. We found no significant difference between the effects of risk factors on mortality in nontraumatic SCL and traumatic SCL, other than the effect of age at lesion onset, which was a greater risk factor in the latter group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The survival rate of patients with nontraumatic SCL has improved significantly in Israel in the last decade. The survival rates of a mixed nontraumatic SCL population are similar to those of traumatic SCL but may differ in specific etiologic age groups.
authors.affiliation: Loewenstein Rehabilitation Hospital, Raanana, Israel.
authors.forename: Jacob
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ronen
authors.forename: Diana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Goldin
authors.forename: Vadim
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Bluvshtein
authors.forename: Beno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Fishel
authors.forename: Ilana
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Gelernter
authors.forename: Amiram
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Catz
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D017668:Age of Onset; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007557:Israel; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011159:Population Surveillance; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012042:Registries; D012047:Rehabilitation Centers; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013118:Spinal Cord Diseases / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality / Q000534:rehabilitation; D016019:Survival Analysis; D015996:Survival Rate; D016896:Treatment Outcome