[Studies of efferent conductivity along the spinal cord after traumatic injury]

Study of the audiospinal effect on the monosynaptic reflex in healthy individuals showed that sound stimulations increased the amplitude of the H-reflex response. Intensification of the H-response was evidence of functioning efferent conduction along the spinal cord pathways. This provided the basis for using the audiospinal effect for testing the functional condition of the efferent spinal pathways in patients with traumatic lesion of the spinal cord. Twenty two patients with spinal cord injury were examined. Sound stimulation increased the H-response amplitude in 9 patients with paraparesis and in 6 patients with paraplegia. In the other 7 patients with lower limb paraplegia the H-response was not intensified by sound stimulation. This was evidence of disturbed efferent conduction along the spinal cord, which corresponded clinically to total impairment of all conduction functions of the spinal cord for a long time after the trauma.