[Direct cost of complete cervical spinal cord injury]

To determine the direct cost of complete cervical spinal cord injury.

34 patients over 16 years of age with a diagnosis of complete cervical spinal cord injury. The cost calculation was done considering nine groups: bed days, specialty consultation, laboratory, X-rays, computed axial tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, anterior surgery, posterior surgery, anterior and posterior surgery. The micro costing technique was used and the mean cost per patient was obtained.

41% of patients had injury at C4-C5; mean age was 36 years; total cost was $8,622,793.00 mexican pesos, and the mean cost in patients who survived was $2,536,115.59 mexican pesos, which represented 29.4% of the total cost; the cost for the patients who died was $6,086,677.41 mexican pesos (70.6%). The percent distribution of the different components analyzed clearly shows that 51% of the total cost corresponded to hospitalization. The estimated annual cost of caring for these patients is $2,155,905.70 Mexican pesos, with an annual increase of $819,905.53 Mexican pesos.

The major cost was hospitalization, so specific clinical management guidelines should be used to optimize economic resources and prevent complications that may increase the costs.