Jennifer A Dunn and coworkers reported the uptake of upper limb surgery by individuals with tetraplegia in New Zealand. All individuals who sustained a cervical spinal cord injury between 1 January 2001 and 31 December 2005 were reviewed for those who met the criteria to undergo upper limb surgery. An
alysis demostrated that the uptake of upper limb surgery for people with tetraplegia in New Zealand was 44% of those who sustained a spinal cord injury causing tetraplegia and 59% of those assessed for surgery. This is notably higher than the reported proportion in other developed countries. The data also suggested that women and those who identified as New Zealand Maori were less likely to undergo upper limb surgery than were men and those of New Zealand European ethnicity.Reference: JA Dunn, EJC Hay-Smith, LC Whitehead, S Keeling and AG Rothwell. Spinal Cord (2010) 48, 832–837.
