Chronic pain after spinal cord injury: results of a long-term study.
OBJECTIVE
Chronic pain after spinal cord injury (SCI) is a common and considerable complication and may continue for a long time.


METHODS
During a 2-year survey, 13.9 +/- 3.0 years after injury, a total of 1,295 war-related spinal cord injury survivors were thoroughly examined by physical and rehabilitation specialists and all relevant data, consisting of type and site of pain as well as exacerbating or palliative factors, were recorded.


METHODS
The mean age of the survivors was 35.9 +/- 7.2; 98.5% were male and 1.5% were female. The level of injury was cervical in 9.3%, thoracic in 67%, and lumbosacral in 23.7%, with 8.1% tetraplegic and 89.1% paraplegic. About 89.8% had complete spinal cord injuries and 10.2% had incomplete spinal cord injuries, based on sensory and motor testing.


RESULTS
Spinal cord related pain was reported in 64.9% of the subjects; 8.8% reported a history of pain but had no complaint at the time of examination, and 26.3% had never suffered from any pain. Patients suffering from lumbar spinal cord injury reported the highest percent of pain perception, with pain detected in 83.5% of these patients. Common sites of reported pain were the distal lower extremities (46.5%), proximal lower extremities (40.9%), pelvic girdle (24.5%), and upper limbs (5.7%).


CONCLUSIONS
Spinal cord injury-related pain interferes with daily activities of patients and significantly influences their quality of life.
Modirian
Ehsan
E
Janbazan Medical and Engineering Research Center (JMERC), Tehran, Iran. e_modirian@jmerc.ac.ir
Pirouzi
Pirouz
P
Soroush
Mohammadreza
M
Karbalaei-Esmaeili
Sima
S
Shojaei
Hadi
H
Zamani
Hamidreza
H
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000328:Adult; D002908:Chronic Disease; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D010146:Pain / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011788:Quality of Life; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000150:complications*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014857:Warfare