TY - JOUR
T1 - Spontaneous Motor Recovery after Cervical Spinal Cord Injury
T2 - Issues for Nerve Transfer Surgery Decision Making
AU - DOD consortium
AU - EMSCI consortium
AU - Dengler, Jana
AU - Steeves, John D.
AU - Curt, Armin
AU - Mehra, Munish
AU - Novak, Christine B.
AU - Curtin, Catherine
AU - Kennedy, Carie
AU - Ota, Doug
AU - Stenson, Katherine C.
AU - Maier, Doris
AU - Abel, Rainer
AU - Weidner, Norbert
AU - Rupp, Rüdiger
AU - Vidal, Joan
AU - Benito, Jesús
AU - Kalke, Yorck Bernhard
AU - Fox, Ida K.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Department of Defense-W81XWH-17-1-0285 Supporting Patient Decisions about Upper-Extremity Surgery in Cervical SCI (PI: Ida K. Fox). The contents of this work do not represent the views of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or the United States Government.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to International Spinal Cord Society.
PY - 2022/10
Y1 - 2022/10
N2 - Study design: Retrospective cohort study. Objectives: To quantify spontaneous upper extremity motor recovery between 6 and 12 months after spinal cord injury (SCI) to help guide timing of nerve transfer surgery to improve upper limb function in cervical SCI. Setting: Nineteen European SCI rehabilitation centers. Methods: Data was extracted from the European Multicenter Study of SCI database for individuals with mid-level cervical SCI (N = 268). Muscle function grades at 6 and 12 months post-SCI were categorized for analysis. Results: From 6 to 12 months after SCI, spontaneous surgically-relevant recovery was limited. Of all limbs (N = 263) with grade 0–2 elbow extension at 6 months, 4% regained grade 4–5 and 11% regained grade 3 muscle function at 12 months. Of all limbs (N = 380) with grade 0–2 finger flexion at 6 months, 3% regained grade 4–5 and 5% regained grade 3 muscle function at 12 months. Conclusion: This information supports early (6 month) post-injury surgical consultation and evaluation. With this information, individuals with SCI can more fully engage in preference-based decision-making about surgical intervention versus continued rehabilitation and spontaneous recovery to gain elbow extension and/or hand opening and closing.
AB - Study design: Retrospective cohort study. Objectives: To quantify spontaneous upper extremity motor recovery between 6 and 12 months after spinal cord injury (SCI) to help guide timing of nerve transfer surgery to improve upper limb function in cervical SCI. Setting: Nineteen European SCI rehabilitation centers. Methods: Data was extracted from the European Multicenter Study of SCI database for individuals with mid-level cervical SCI (N = 268). Muscle function grades at 6 and 12 months post-SCI were categorized for analysis. Results: From 6 to 12 months after SCI, spontaneous surgically-relevant recovery was limited. Of all limbs (N = 263) with grade 0–2 elbow extension at 6 months, 4% regained grade 4–5 and 11% regained grade 3 muscle function at 12 months. Of all limbs (N = 380) with grade 0–2 finger flexion at 6 months, 3% regained grade 4–5 and 5% regained grade 3 muscle function at 12 months. Conclusion: This information supports early (6 month) post-injury surgical consultation and evaluation. With this information, individuals with SCI can more fully engage in preference-based decision-making about surgical intervention versus continued rehabilitation and spontaneous recovery to gain elbow extension and/or hand opening and closing.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85135482864&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41393-022-00834-6
DO - 10.1038/s41393-022-00834-6
M3 - Article
C2 - 35896613
AN - SCOPUS:85135482864
SN - 1362-4393
VL - 60
SP - 922
EP - 927
JO - Spinal Cord
JF - Spinal Cord
IS - 10
ER -