Animal models of compression spinal cord injury

Abstract

Compression spinal cord injuries are a common cause of morbidity in people who experience a spinal cord injury (SCI). Either as a by‐product of a traumatic injury or due to nontraumatic conditions such as cervical myelitis, compression injuries are growing in prevalence clinically and many attempts of animal replication have been described within the literature. These models, however, often focus on the traumatic side of injury or mimic short‐term injuries that are not representative of the majority of compression SCI. Of this, nontraumatic spinal cord injuries are severely understudied and have an increased prevalence in elderly populations, adults, and children. Therefore, there is a need to critically evaluate the current animal models of compression SCI and their suitability as a method for clinically relevant data that can help reduce morbidity and mortality of SCI. In this review, we reviewed the established and emerging methods of animal models of compression SCI. These models are the clip, balloon, solid spacer, expanding polymer, remote, weight drop, calibrated forceps, screw, and strap methods. These methods showed that there is a large reliance on the use of laminectomy to induce injury. Furthermore, the age range of many studies does not reflect the elderly and young populations that commonly suffer from compression injuries. It is therefore important to have techniques and methods that are able to minimize secondary effects of the surgeries, and are representative of the clinical cases seen so that treatments and interventions can be developed that are specific.

Single-cell transcriptomics reveals ependymal subtypes related to cytoskeleton dynamics as the core driver of syringomyelia pathological development

“…Clinically, compression injuries are becoming more common, and numerous efforts at animal model replication indicative of the specific clinical cases have been documented in the literature. 30 For previous syringomyelia animal models, 31 , 32 , 33 the commonality lies mainly in that CC could expand as a result of increased turbulence that prompted CSF flow to the CC through the perivascular spaces (Virchow-Robin space). At this point, it seems to be consistent with the effect of our animal model.…”

Postoperative Neurological Outcome in Spinal Tuberculosis Patients Presenting with Severe Neurological Deficits

“…In the lumbosacral region, it causes psoas abscess formation. 8,9 Surgical technique varies depending on the location of the lesion. In the cervical region, mostly anterior trans-cervical approach was used with decompression of the vertebral bodies and discs.…”

“…These were the age of patients, bladder involvement, spasticity, and duration of neurological involvement. 5,9 First of all, patients were considered according to the age of the patient. Various studies have been done on this topic.…”

“…Ridlen et al, showed that old age patients had atherosclerosis of arteries so they lose their compensatory dilation of the arterioles as a result of decompression. 9 In young patients, this phenomenon occurred resulting in early neurological improvement. This also correlated with our research in which young age patients improve early.…”

“…Spinal deformity is due to the destruction of vertebral bodies anteriorly leading to kyphosis. 9 This occurs mostly in thoracic and thoracolumbar regions and there will be gibbus formation at the back. Neurological deficits are due to compression of the nervous tissue or due to spinal instability which causes the mechanical traction of the spinal cord and leads to neurological deficits.…”