Life Expectancy Determinations: Cerebral Palsy, Traumatic Brain Injury, and Spinal Cord Injury Analysis and Comparison

In preparing a life care plan for a disabled individual, a determination of life expectancy is usually necessary. The most common disorders in which life expectancy results have been studied in individuals with chronic, non-progressive neurologic disabilities are cerebral palsy (CP), traumatic brain injury (TBI,) and spinal cord injury (SCI). The interpretation of published results, and their practical application to an individual patient, must be determined by evaluating methodological aspects of the studies, such as when (historically) the data was collected, how long and to what age the study subjects were followed, whether optimal medical care was provided, and whether the study subjects had other significant medical illnesses. In this paper, the methodology for critically analyzing and interpreting the literature on life expectancy in CP, TBI and SCI is presented. The most important determinants of life expectancy are the specific types and degrees of disabilities that an individual has. Despite marked clinical differences in the causes of these three chronic neurologic disorders (CP, TBI and SCI), when appropriately analyzed and applied, these bodies of literature may result in life expectancy determinations that are similar.