CHAPTER 4
DEVELOPMENT OF OTHER SPINAL
INJURIES CENTRES
2. OTHER COUNTRIES
ARGENTINA
There is one large Rehabilitation Centre in Buenos Aires under the leadership of Dr
Jose Cibeira. This is run by a voluntary institution called Asociacion Cooperadora del
Instituto nacional de Rehabilitacion del lisiados (A.C.I.R.) which is supported by the
Government. This is a general rehabilitation centre but with a large complement of
locomotor lesions such as polio, spina bifida, and also includes traumatic paraplegics
and tetraplegics. The latter group has gradually increased in recent years and Dr
Cibeira is building a Spinal Injuries Unit. This Rehabilitation Centre is equipped
with good research facilities and a number of publications have been produced by Dr
Cibeira and his colleagues, who take part regularly at the annual meeting of the Internat–
ional Medical Society ofParaplegia. Argentine is the first country in South America which
has from an early stage included sport in its rehabilitation programme, which has proved
most valuable, and the Argentine paraplegic team has for many years taken part in the
International Stoke Mandeville Games and distinguished themselves by their excellent
skill. Moreover, the Second Pan-American Paraplegic Games were held in Buenos
Aires under the leadership of Mr Lococo, the President of the Paraplegic Association in
Argentina. This Centre has done a great deal to disseminate knowledge on the problems
of paraplegia to other parts of the Argentine.
AUSTRALIA
Since 1954, Spinal Injuries Centres have been established in Perth (Western Australia),
Melbourne (Victoria), Adelaide (Southern Australia) and Sydney (New South Wales)
where civilians and ex-servicemen are treated. All these units are attached to Teaching
Hospitals. The two outstanding Units for both immediate and long-term medical and
social management are those at Shenton Park, Perth, under Dr G.Bedbrook, an ortho–
paedic surgeon, and that at the Austin Hospital in Melbourne, which has been com–
pletely reorganized since my visit in 1957, undertaken at the request of the Nuffield
Foundation, and which, since 1960, has been until recently under the leadership of
Dr D.Cheshire, a specialist in Physical Medicine, who spent some time at Stoke Mande–
ville. (Dr Cheshire is now director of research at the new Spinal Injuries Centre in
Phoenix (U.S.A.) of which Dr Young is the director.) Most of their traumatic spinal
cord lesions are admitted immediately after injury. Associated with both Centres are
hostels for paraplegics and tetraplegics who for one reason or another cannot return to
their own home districts. Plans are also made for an enlargement and better accommoda-
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