Paraplegia at the Tikur Anbessa Teaching Hospital: a seven year retrospective study of 164 cases

Admission analysis of adult non-traumatic paraplegia and paraparesis from 1981 to 1988 was carried out. Information was collected from charts of 223 consecutive admissions according to a pre-set protocol. Paraplegia or paraparesis was responsible for 164(13.4%) of all neurological admissions over the study period. The median age of the patients was 36 years with a male to female ratio of 1.7:1. Tuberculosis was the leading cause of paraplegia or paraparesis accounting for 47% of the cases. Tumours (20%), Landry-Guillain-Barre' syndrome (12.2%) and tropical spastic paraparesis (TSP) (9.8%) were important but less frequent causes in this series. Other causes like disc prolapse, transverse myelitis, spinal artery stroke and fluorosis were rarely encountered. Vertebral deformity (88.1%), vertebral tenderness (88.1%) and abnormal plain spinal X-ray (89%) were the most helpful findings in the diagnosis of tuberculous paraplegia. Nearly all cases of tuberculous paraplegia were treated medically alone. However, the outcome of treatment as judged by the treating physicians was good with a significant response recorded in 78%.