[Urologic complications and mortality among spinal cord injury patients]

The direct causes of death of 73 patients in different periods after injuries to the spinal cord are analysed. Two groups of the decreased are distinguished depending on the results of pathological examination: those with marked neurodystrophic and inflammatory changes in the organs of the urinary system which had not been the direct cause of death, and individuals in whom death had been caused by urological complications. These complications were the direct cause of death of 49.4% of patients with injuries to the spinal cord. The most frequent cause of death on the part of the urinary organs in the initial and early restoration periods was urosepsis; in the late restorative and residual periods death in most cases was caused by chronic renal insufficiency.