TABULATION AND REVIEW OF AUTOPSY FINDINGS IN FIFTY-FIVE PARAPLEGICS

Abstract

Autopsy records of 55 paraplegics here studied gave an average longevity of 43.6 months after the onset of paraplegia, and an average of 52.8 months for the 41 patients with traumatic paraplegia not dying immediately after the injury. Genitourinary disease is now a less important, but still the leading, cause of death. Decubitus ulcers were second to cystitis in frequency of occurrence. Unless means are found for preventing these and other chronic infections, amyloidosis will be an increasingly common finding; it is a serious and important complication. In addition to chronic disease of the liver, acute abdominal conditions arise and present difficult diagnostic and surgical problems. Nevertheless, the person who becomes a paraplegic today has a better life expectancy than the paraplegic of ten years ago, and the figures now available probably understate the present life-expectancy.