The Influence Of Timing Of Decompression On Neurologic Recovery After Spinal Cord Injury In A Rabbit Model

Objective To establish acute cervical spinal cord injury animal model and to evaluate the effect of the timing of decompression after spinal cord injury on neurologic recovery.To seek for a time window for decompression in acute cervical spinal cord injury animal model that could gain the best results.Methods Ninety five New Zealand rabbits were divided randomly into the control group and experimental group.The experimental group was divided further into 9 subgroups(A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I).The rabbits were undergone ventral boring at the level of C3.Then the animals were made into models of ventral acute spinal cord injury model by an impacting force of 40.0 gcm at the bony bore of C3 according the method of advanced Allen's,and using screw through cervical anterior approach for compression to spinal cord 3 to simulate compression.At differenttime(4h,6h,12h,18h,24h,2d,3d,5d,7d)the vertebral canal were decompressed(remove the screw).Meanwhile the rabbits were evaluated the motor function as the advanced Tarlov method,myelin basic protein,Somatosensory evoked potential were used to assess neurologic recovery for 6 weeks until the animals were killed for histologic evaluation.The date was managed by the SPSS 10.0 software.Results The MBP-ELISA revealed that ongoing cord damage associated with compression as edema develops after SCI.The motor behavior scoresmotor behavior scores and somatosensory evoked potential all illustrate that the neurologic recovery of A,B,C,D,E group were better than the other groups.And the F,G group were better than the H,I,J group.Histologic analysis showed more severe spinal cord damage as the time until decompression increased.Conclusion It is recommended that anterior injury and screw compression model is one of the useful spinal cord injury.The results in this study present strong evidence that the prognosis for neurologic recovery is adversely affected by the timing of decompression after spinal cord injury.Here is a time window for for decompression in acute cervical spinal cord injury animal model,decompression in which can acquire best neurological functional recovery.Additionally,it appears that the longer the spinal cord compression exists after an incomplete spinal cord injury,the worse the prognosis for neurologic recovery.