[How does the new spinal-cord-injured patient profile influence bladder management?]

To describe the bladder management in spinal cord injury and to verify if the increase in the age of the patient who is suffering a spinal cord injury in recent years is conditioning a change in its treatment.

We performed a retrospective review of all acute traumatic spinal cord injured patients in Canary Islands between 2001-2015. Data were collected from the hospital records of a regional referral Spinal Cord Unit.

The sample included 250 patients. Patients' mean age was observed to increase from 38 to 47 years during the study (p<0.05). Clean Intermittent Catheterization (CIC) was the most used bladder emptying method (42.4%), followed by normal voiding (NV) (26.4%) and permanent derivation (PD) (23.6%). There was a decrease in CIC use (48.1% to 40.3%) and an increase in PD use (13.5% to 32.5%) ( p<0.05 ). Cervical injuries were associated with NV (35.8%), while thoracic and lumbar injuries were associated with IC (67% and 41.7% respectively). Patients discharged to a health care residence were associated with IC (81.8%) (p<0.05).

CIC is currently the most frequently used bladder emptying method in spinal cord injured patients in our population. The mean age of new spinal cord injury patients is progressively increasing and it promotes the use of indwelling catheter with an increased risk of urologic complications.