Effect of older age on treatment decisions and outcomes among patients with traumatic spinal cord injury

Ahn H, Bailey CS, Rivers CS, Noonan VK, Tsai EC, Fourney DR, Attabib N, Kwon BK, Christie SD, Fehlings MG, Finkelstein J, Hurlbert RJ, Townson A, Parent S, Drew B, Chen J, Dvorak MF, and The RHSCIR Network. Canadian Medical Association Journal. 08 Sep 2015. doi: 10.1503/cmaj.150085

Summary: More people over the age of 70 are incurring spinal cord injuries given the changing population demographics. It is not clear if there are differences in management of these older patients. We found that older patients with traumatic spinal cord injuries are less likely to receive surgery compared with younger patients and they experience a significant lag between both injury and acute admission to a specialized centre, and between admission and surgery. Future work will look at differences in outcome and advise treatment guidelines.