Decompression of the spinal cord improves recovery after acute experimental spinal cord compression injury

The value of decompression after spinal cord injury in patients is still an unresolved issue. It has previously been shown in our laboratory that functional recovery in rats after cord compression varied with both the force and time until decompression. However, the longest duration studied was only 15 minutes, which is far less than that usually encountered in clinical practice, and therefore, the present study was undertaken to determine the value of decompression after more prolonged periods of compression. A factorially designed experiment with five rats per cell was used with the clip compression injury model. Forces of 2.3, 16.9 or 53.0 gms were applied at C7-T1 until decompression was performed after 15, 60, 120, or 240 minutes of compression. Functional recovery was assessed weekly for 8 weeks using the inclined plane technique. Maximum and minimum performance limits were established in normal rats and rats with cord transection, respectively. Univariate analysis and multiple comparison tests were used to analyse the data. The major determinant of recovery was the force of the injury. For example, the animals injured by the 2.3 gm clip performed significantly better than those injured at higher forces for all times until decompression (p less than 0.0001), and there was a significant difference in recovery between the groups injured by the 16.9 and 53.0 gm clips, although only for the 15 minutes until decompression group (p less than 0.05). The time until decompression also affected recovery, but only for the lighter compression forces (2.3 and 16.9 gm). For example, animals decompressed after 60 minutes of 2.3 gm compression recovered significantly better than those decompressed after 240 minutes (p less than 0.05). Thus, if the initial injury force is small, decompression is beneficial even after prolonged injury.