IMPRIMIR VOLTAR D. Ciências da Saúde - 8. Fisioterapia e Terapia Ocupacional - 1. Fisioterapia e Terapia Ocupacional ANALYSIS OF THE CAUSAL FACTORS OF TRAUMATIC SPINAL CORD INJURY IN CERVICAL AREA IN THE STATE OF SERGIPE José Nery Santiago Neto 1   (autor)   jnerysn@ig.com.br Andreza Carvalho Rabelo 1   (autor)   bolsista do PIBIC/CNPQ Danilo Ribeiro Guerra 1   (autor)   bolsista do PIBIC/CNPQ - drguerra@pop.com.br Marcelo Prata Faro de Ávila 1   (colaborador)   pratafaro@bol.com.br Elisvânia Barroso dos Santos 1   (colaborador)   libarroso@bol.com.br Francisco Prado Reis 2   (orientador)   Dr. / pradoreis@netdados.com.br José Aderval Aragão 3   (co-orientador)   jaafelipe@infonet.com.br 1. Graduando do Curso de Fisioterapia, Centro de Ciências da Saúde, Universidade Tiradente-UNIT 2. Prof. Dr. do Curso de Fisioterapia, Centro de Ciências da Saúde, Universidade Tiradente -UNIT 3. Prof. do Curso de Biomedicina,Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde, Universidade Tiradentes-UNIT INTRODUÇÃO: There are about 30 diseases that can affect the spinal cord, being the traumatisms the most relevant of these causes, consisting in a injury provoked by a external agent that can cause many problems and organic lesions. When it happens, it´s denominated of Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) and can cause socioeconomic impacts not just to the patients, but also to their families and the society. Other disturbances of the spinal cord can ocurr, for example, by tumors, infections and vertebral bone disease. The SCI happens in a sharp and unexpected way, provoking lesion of the vertebrae, spinal cord, ligaments of the column or adjacent musculature. One or more of these structures can be harmed, not being possible to foresee which of them will be affected. Thus, the spinal cord can, or not, come being affected by the trauma that, when it settles down in the spinal cord (or in the nervous roots to it connected), it suggests the possibility of neurological disturbances of character permanent or transitory, extensive or limited and can take physical problems or death. In general, these alterations are processed in approximately 25% of the cases. The relevance of the knowledge in determinig the causal factors possibilits the necessary measures to minimize the incidence of SCI. METODOLOGIA: This work was constituted in a research of applied nature and it approached the problem essentially quantitative. The study possessed a retrospective character and the document retrieval was made in the section of Traumatology of the Hospital Governor João Alves Filho, larger public hospital of the state of Sergipe, after previous approval for the Center of Continuous Studies (CEC). There were followed the norms of this institution according to the norms in the Resolution 196-96 of National Council of Health from Brazil (CNS). In the hospital, there were collected, the datas regarding to the period between first of January of 1999 and September thirty, 2003. The collected data were registered in formularies that consisted of space to the identification of the causes of the traumas. Later, the data were submitted to the statistical analysis, through the establishment of percentages. RESULTADOS: There were 140 cases of traumatic spinal cord injury in the Hospital Governor João Alves Filho, during the analyzed period, and a total of 12 medical formularies didn't present the cause of the traumatism and, of the 128 that registered the causal factor, it could be noticed that the accidents of traffic constituted the most relevant of the causes, because they corresponded 40,6% of the total of cervical SCI, being following for the height fall (19,5%), firearm projectile (14,8%), fall of same height (9,3%) and dive (7,8%). Among the accidents of traffic that caused Spinal Cord Injury, 44,2% of the victims were inside of cars, 21,1% were being transported by motorcycle, 21,1% were pedestrians and 13,4% drove bicycles. Of the victims for height fall, 21% didn't have in their handbooks the specification of the place from where they fell, 29% suffered animal fall, 19% of tree, 11% of cart and the remaining, in teh same proportion (4% for each one), of chair, scaffold, tractor, stairs and roof. CONCLUSÕES: The majority of SCI in cervical area was caused by accidents of traffic, impling the necessity of reviewing the fiscalization in the execution of the current laws of traffic, as well as taking the necessary measures for a larger level of safety to be guaranteed not only for the drivers and passengers, but also for the pedestrians. There is a true violence in the traffic, that is bigger than that caused by the firearms, in what refers to the incidence of SCI in cervical area. Trabalho de Iniciação Científica Palavras-chave:  Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury; Cervical; Causes. Anais da 56ª Reunião Anual da SBPC - Cuiabá, MT - Julho/2004