This is a study to investigate the diagnostic and prognostic value of MRI in spinal cord injury.

We performed this prospective study on sixty two patients of acute spinal trauma. We evaluated the epidemiology of spinal trauma & various traumatic findings by MRI. MRI findings were correlated with clinical findings at admission & discharge according to ASIA impairment scale. Four types of MR signal patterns were seen in association with spinal cord injury-cord edema / non haemmorhagic cord contusion (CC), severe cord compression (SCC), cord hemorrhage (CH) and epidural heamatoma (EH). Isolated lesion of cord contusion was found in 40%. All other MR signal patterns were found to be in combination. In cord contusion we further subdivided the group into contusion of size < 3 cm and contusion of size > 3 cm to evaluate any significance of length of cord contusion. In cord heammorhage involving >1cm of the cord, focus was said to be sizable.

On bivariate analysis, there was a definitive correlation of cord contusion (CC) involving <3cm & > 3cm of cord with sensory outcome. In >3cm, chances of improvement was 5.75 times lesser than in patients with CC involving <3cm of cord (odds ratio = 5.75 (95% CI: 0.95, 36), Fisher's exact p = 0.0427 (p<.05). In severe cord compression (SCC) the risk of poor outcome was more (odds ratio 4.3 and p=0.149) however was not statistically significant. It was noted that the patients in which epidural hematoma (EH) was present, no improvement was seen, however, by statistical analysis it was not a risk factor and was not related with the outcome (odds ratio – 0.5 and p = 0.22). Presence of cord oedema / non haemorrhagic contusion was not associated with poor outcome (odds ratio 0.25 and p=0.178). On multiple logistic regression / multivariate analysis for estimating prognosis, sizable focus of haemorrhage was most consistently associated with poor outcome (odds ratio −6.73 and p= 0.32) however it was not statistically significant. The risk of retaining a complete cord injury at the time of follow up for patients who initially had significant haemorrhage in cord was more than 6 fold with patients without initial haemorrhage (odds ratio 6.97 and p= .0047).

Besides being helpful in diagnosis, MRI findings may serve as a prognostic indicator for clinical, neurological and functional outcome in acute spinal trauma patients.

Introduction. Neurological involvement occurs in 10-30% cases of caries spine. Surgical debridement and stabilisation is needed to decompress the cord and prevent progression of deformity. This prospective study was undertaken to determine the efficacy of operative treatment in the management and neurological recovery in patients with caries spine with neural deficit. Material & methods. 20 patients, 14 male, 6 female, were included and followed up for 1 year after surgery. The mean age was 39.45 years. 10 patients had complete paraplegia and 9 patients had paraparesis. 1 patient with cervical involvement had quadriplegia. Anterior decompression and stabilisation was done in all the cases. Objective of surgery was adequate debridement of diseased foci, decompression of cord and stabilisation of spine with correction of deformity. In 19 (95%) patients there with thoraco-lumbar involvement. This was addressed with a titanium mesh cage filled with impacted bone graft and supplemented with 2 Moss Miami screws and a rod construct. In the cervical spine, cervical spine locking plate was used for stabilisation after decompression and bone grafting (tricortical iliac crest graft). Results. Fifteen patients had complete and 5 patients had incomplete neurologic recovery. Neurological recovery started as early as first post-op week (range 3 days to 12 weeks). The ASIA motor score improved from 60.80 (60.80 +/− 20.206) before surgery to 73.55 (73.55 +/− 13.828) at 1 month and 95.30 (95.30+/−11.934) at 6 months after surgery. The ASIA sensory score improved from 173.30 (173.30 +/− 50.689), to 186.85 (186.65 +/− 37.452) at one month and 218.45 (218.45 +/−11.843) at 6 months. All 8 patients with bladder and bowel involvement recovered normal bladder and bowel functions at 6 months. There was no recurrence of infection. Bony fusion was achieved in all patients and there were no implant failures. Conclusion. Anterior debridement, decompression, stabilisation and anti-tubercular chemotherapy resulted in neurological recovery in the majority of the patients

Injury to the sciatic nerve is one of the more serious complications of acetabular fracture and traumatic dislocation of the hip, both in the short and long term. We have reviewed prospectively patients, treated in our unit, for acetabular fractures who had concomitant injury to the sciatic nerve, with the aim of predicting the functional outcome after these injuries.

Of 136 patients who underwent stabilisation of acetabular fractures, there were 27 (19.9%) with neurological injury. At initial presentation, 13 patients had a complete foot-drop, ten had weakness of the foot and four had burning pain and altered sensation over the dorsum of the foot. Serial electromyography (EMG) studies were performed and the degree of functional recovery was monitored using the grading system of the Medical Research Council. In nine patients with a foot-drop, there was evidence of a proximal acetabular (sciatic) and a distal knee (neck of fibula) nerve lesion, the double-crush syndrome.

At the final follow-up, clinical examination and EMG studies showed full recovery in five of the ten patients with initial muscle weakness, and complete resolution in all four patients with sensory symptoms (burning pain and hyperaesthesia). There was improvement of functional capacity (motor and sensory) in two patients who presented initially with complete foot-drop. In the remaining 11 with foot-drop at presentation, including all nine with the double-crush lesion, there was no improvement in function at a mean follow-up of 4.3 years.