What are the trends and demographics in sports-related pediatric spinal cord injuries?

ABSTRACTObjectives: Pediatric spinal cord injury (PSCI) is a devastating injury that can cause significant long-term consequences. The purpose of this study is to calculate and report the prevalence of PSCI, identify risk factors for sports-related PSCI, and evaluate associated factors.Methods: The data sets of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) Kids’ Inpatient Database (KID) from 2000–2012 were analyzed using ICD-9-CM external cause of injury codes to identify the mechanism of injury contributing to PSCI hospitalization. We then extracted demographic data on each admission including age, gender, race, and year of admission. We further stratified the data by sports-related cases of injury. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to identify independent risk factors.Results: Of our study population, 0.8% had a documented diagnosis of spinal cord injury (SCI). The most common documented external cause of injury code was motor vehicle accidents, representing roughly half of all ca...