Prognostic factor analysis after surgical decompression and stabilization for cervical spinal-cord injury

AbstractIntroduction: Several studies have demonstrated the role of decompression surgery in preventing secondary injury and improving the neurological outcome after spinal cord injury (SCI). We retrospectively analyzed the prognostic factors affecting the outcomes of decompression surgery in patients with SCI.Methods: We performed one-level decompression and fusion surgery on 73 patients with cervical SCI. We classified all patients based on their interval to decompression, sex, age, surgical level, presence of high signal intensity, American Spinal Injury Association Impairment scale (AIS) before surgery, blood pressure at admission, the amount of cord compression, surgical time, estimated blood loss during surgery, and steroid use. We considered an improvement to have occurred if the patient showed an AIS improvement of ≥1 grade.Results: Among the 73 patients with SCI we analyzed, 27 and 35 showed ≥1 grade of AIS improvement immediately and 3 months after surgery, respectively. Using multivariate analy...