Imaging of the Cervical Spine > Introduction > Costs

Costs

The costs associated spinal cord injury can be very substantial. To understand these costs more clearly, we can divide them into two types: direct and indirect. The direct cost is defined as the expenses as a direct result of the injury such as costs of hospital stay and medications. The indirect cost of spinal cord injuries is defined as the loss of future wages, fringe benefits, and productivity. The mean direct costs for the first year after injury, based on injury level and the Frankel Neurologic Classification of injury severity, ranged from a high of $417,067 for ventilator dependent quadriplegics patients to a low of $122,914 in the group with near normal neurologic function. The indirect costs often greatly exceed the direct costs.