Following natural recovery in adults with spinal cord injury across European centres

AI summary

From the trial's eligibility criteria. Machine-read from the registry text on this page, so it can be wrong. The registry text below and the trial team decide who can take part.

The trial is looking for adults with paralysis of the legs or of the arms and legs after a single spinal cord injury or a single loss of blood flow to the spinal cord. It follows how people recover on their own.

Age

18 Years or older

Sex

All

Disease stage

Paralysis of the legs (paraplegia) or of arms and legs (tetraplegia) from a single injury or a single loss of blood flow (ischemic). The first study check must be possible within 6 weeks after the event.

Main reasons for not taking part

• Paralysis from other causes, such as a slipped disc, tumor, blood vessel malformation (AV-malformation) or spinal cord inflammation (myelitis)
• Known dementia or severely reduced intelligence that limits cooperation or consent
• Nerve damage outside the spinal cord above the level of the injury, such as brachial plexus damage
• Known polyneuropathy (damage to many nerves)
• Severe head and brain injury

The registry criteria, word for word

What the trial wants to find out

Today there is accumulating evidence from animal experiments that regeneration can be induced after a spinal cord injury (SCI). Consequently in the near future, new therapeutic approaches to induce some regeneration will be included in the treatment of patients with SCI. The aim of this proposal is to provide the required clinical basis for the implementation of novel interventional therapies. The establishment of combined clinical, functional and neurophysiological measures for a qualitative and quantitative assessment of spinal cord function in patients with SCI at different stages during rehabilitation represents a basic requirement to monitor any significant effect of a new treatment. Therefore, several European Paraplegic Centres involved in the rehabilitation of acute traumatic SCI patients build up a close collaboration for standardised assessment. The aim is to get knowledge about the natural recovery after spinal cord lesion in a larger population of patients in the sense of a historical control group and to bring new standardised assessment tools to the clinical setting.