Introduction: With a varying annual incidence across populations, traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI) remains a public health concern of utmost importance, especially in developing countries with an incidence rate ranging from 12.7 to 29.7 per million people and a postulated increase in the number of patients living with undesirable complications of this condition. It is against this background that we reviewed the literature to bring to light the epidemiology, burden, management, and outcomes of TSCIs across Africa.
Methods: The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses was used in this study. We included descriptive studies with data on the incidence, presentation, management, and outcomes of TSCIs in African surgical centers. We conducted our search on PubMed and OVID Embase and supplemented it with an extensive review of African Journal Online and Google Scholar.
Results: Thirteen papers were identified from our search. Most papers were from Nigeria (n = 4) and Tanzania (n = 3). In total, our review included 1332 persons across the different centers. There were more males than females (n = 1029/1332, 72%). The most common etiology was road traffic accidents, constituting 44%, while falls and other mechanisms like assault and sports injuries had 28% each. The incidence of TSCI varied from 13 per million population per year in Botswana to 75.6 per million population per year in South Africa.
Conclusions: The incidence of the traumatic condition in certain parts of Africa is significantly higher than in other parts of the world, suggesting the need for an urgent call to action regarding addressing its key drivers.
Keywords: Injury; Spinal cord; Traumatic injury.
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