Results presented at the North American Spine Society Annual Meeting showed access to early surgery may not be equal among patients with traumatic spinal cord injuries.
“Our results raise concerns with regard to ethical access to care based on race and age,” Ali Moghaddamjou, MD, said in his presentation here. “The results also highlight the importance of limiting hospital transfers.”
Using the Surgical Timing in Acute Spinal Cord Injury Study and the North American Clinical Trials Network dataset, Moghaddamjou and colleagues classified patients with traumatic spinal cord injury into groups based on whether they underwent either early surgery or delayed surgery.
