Abstract: Objective To survey the situation of spinal cord injuries (SCI) in Beijing.Methods China Rehabilitation Research Center and Information Center of Beijing Health Bureau sponsored the surveillance of 86 hospitals in Beijing which had hospitalized SCI patients in 2002. The faculty of surveillance was composed of trained professionals. The number of registered SCI patients in 2002 was 1077, and 264 patients in 11 hospitals were chosen to be investigated in detail according to stratified sampling result.Results There were 1077 registered patients with a neurological deficit and the annual SCI incidence was 60 per million. The ratio of male to female was 3:1 and the ratio of cervical, thoracic, lumbar injuries and others is 4.9%, 28%, 66.7%, 0.4% respectively. The mean age at the time of injury was 41 years. The causes most frequently seen were falls from a height and traffic accidents. The mean time of hospitalization was 18.9 days and the mean expenditure of hospitalization was 27819.3 RMB. Four patients were transferred to rehabilitation hospitals, and others went homes directly after discharge.Conclusion There are many reasons for the high annual SCI incidence in Beijing and the first SCI cause was falling from a height, which should be pay special attention when the prevention measures are taken into account. The rate of SCI patients who received systemic medical rehabilitation was low.

Key words: spinal cord injury, epidemiology, incidence, prevention, investigation