scholarly journals The impact of early versus late surgical decompression on neurological recovery after traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI)

Spinal Cord ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 50 (11) ◽  
pp. 789-789 ◽  
Author(s):  
J J Wyndaele
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 324-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Valerie ter Wengel ◽  
Yvette De Haan ◽  
Ricardo E. Feller ◽  
F. Cumhur Oner ◽  
William Peter Vandertop

Study Design: A narrative literature review. Objectives: To review the neurological recovery patterns in traumatic spinal cord injury (tSCI) patients with a complete lack of motor and sensory function below the level of injury (ie, ASIA A [American Spinal Injury Association scale]), as well as the impact of level of injury and timing of surgical intervention. Results: Spontaneous neurological recovery in patients with complete tSCI differs per level of injury: patients with cervical and thoracolumbar tSCI recover ≥1 ASIA grade in 17.3% to 34.0% 1 year after injury, compared with 10.7% to 18.6% in thoracic tSCI. Surgical decompression within 24 hours has a beneficial effect on neurological recovery in patients with complete cervical tSCI, whereas this effect is less clear for thoracic and thoracolumbar tSCI. A 1- or 2-grade improvement in the ASIA scale does not necessarily result in functional recovery. Conclusion: In complete tSCI, the level of injury as well as surgical timing affect neurological recovery. There appears to be a beneficial effect of early surgical decompression in patients with complete cervical tSCI, more so than for thoracic and thoracolumbar tSCI. Frequently, the effect of surgical intervention is evaluated by an improvement in ASIA grade, but it is unclear whether this scale is sensitive enough to evaluate meaningful effectiveness of the intervention and desired outcome for patients with tSCI.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (24) ◽  
pp. 5977
Author(s):  
Tobias Bock ◽  
Raban Arved Heller ◽  
Patrick Haubruck ◽  
Tim Friedrich Raven ◽  
Maximilian Pilz ◽  
...  

Background: The optimal timing of surgical therapy for traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI) remains unclear. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of “ultra-early” (<4 h) versus “early” (4–24 h) time from injury to surgery in terms of the likelihood of neurologic recovery. Methods: The effect of surgery on neurological recovery was investigated by comparing the assessed initial and final values of the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) Impairment Scale (AIS). A post hoc analysis was performed to gain insight into different subgroup regeneration behaviors concerning neurological injury levels. Results: Datasets from 69 cases with traumatic spinal cord injury were analyzed. Overall, 19/46 (41.3%) patients of the “ultra-early” cohort saw neurological recovery compared to 5/23 (21.7%) patients from the “early” cohort (p = 0.112). The subgroup analysis revealed differences based on the neurological level of injury (NLI) of a patient. An optimal cutpoint for patients with a cervical lesion was estimated at 234 min. Regarding the prediction of neurological improvement, sensitivity was 90.9% with a specificity of 68.4%, resulting in an AUC (area under the curve) of 84.2%. In thoracically and lumbar injured cases, the estimate was lower, ranging from 284 (thoracic) to 245 min (lumbar) with an AUC of 51.6% and 54.3%. Conclusions: Treatment within 24 h after TSCI is associated with neurological recovery. Our hypothesis that intervention within 4 h is related to an improvement in the neurological outcome was not confirmed in our collective. In a clinical context, this suggests that after TSCI there is a time frame to get the right patient to the right hospital according to advanced trauma life support (ATLS) guidelines.


Spine ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 37 (17) ◽  
pp. 1448-1455 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kensuke Kubota ◽  
Hirokazu Saiwai ◽  
Hiromi Kumamaru ◽  
Kazu Kobayakawa ◽  
Takeshi Maeda ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (11) ◽  
pp. 1455 ◽  
Author(s):  
OA Ojo ◽  
EO Poluyi ◽  
BS Owolabi ◽  
OO Kanu ◽  
MO Popoola

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