Neurological and functional recovery after thoracic spinal cord injury.

Content Provider	Europe PMC
Author	Lee, Brian A. Leiby, Benjamin E. Marino, Ralph J.
Copyright Year	2015
Abstract	Objective To describe neurological and functional outcomes after traumatic paraplegia. Design Retrospective analysis of longitudinal database. Setting Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems. Participants Six hundred sixty-one subjects enrolled in the Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems database, injured between 2000 and 2011, with initial neurological level of injury from T2–12. Two hundred sixty-five subjects had second neurological exams and 400 subjects had Functional Independence Measure (FIM) scores ≥6 months after injury. Outcome Measures American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale (AIS) grade, sensory level (SL), lower extremity motor scores (LEMS), and FIM. Results At baseline, 73% of subjects were AIS A, and among them, 15.5% converted to motor incomplete. The mean SL increase for subjects with an AIS A grade was 0.33 ± 0.21; 86% remained within two levels of baseline. Subjects with low thoracic paraplegia (T10–12) demonstrated greater LEMS gain than high paraplegia (T2–9), and also had higher 1-year FIM scores, which had not been noted in earlier reports. Better FIM scores were also correlated with better AIS grades, younger age and increase in AIS grade. Ability to walk at 1 year was associated with low thoracic injury, higher initial LEMS, incomplete injury and increase in AIS grade. Conclusion Little neurological recovery is seen in persons with complete thoracic SCI, especially with levels above T10. Persons who are older at the time of injury have poorer functional recovery than younger persons. Conversion to a better AIS grade is associated with improvement in self-care and mobility at 1 year.
Related Links	https://europepmc.org/backend/ptpmcrender.fcgi?accid=PMC4725794&blobtype=pdf
ISSN	10790268
Volume Number	39
PubMed Central reference number	PMC4725794
Issue Number	1
PubMed reference number	25520184
Journal	The Journal of Spinal Cord Medicine [J Spinal Cord Med]
e-ISSN	20457723
DOI	10.1179/2045772314y.0000000280
Language	English
Publisher	Maney Publishing
Publisher Date	2014-12-18
Access Restriction	Open
Rights License	© The Academy of Spinal Cord Injury Professionals, Inc. 2015
Subject Keyword	Outcomes Recovery Rehabilitation Spinal cord injuries Paraplegia
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Neurology (clinical)