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Best Practices Resource Helps Deliver Right Care at Right Time

Praxis-AO Spine Acute SCI guidelines cover the critical acute SCI patient journey

Praxis exists to lead global collaboration in spinal cord injury research, innovation and care. We translate knowledge to bridge health evidence with real-world delivery. The word praxis means the practical application of a theory – moving knowledge into action. We measure our success through impact, how Praxis makes a difference to the SCI community.

People with SCI will be getting improved spine surgery and acute care thanks to the Praxis-AO Spine Acute SCI Guidelines. Prompt and accurate clinical care in the acute phase following SCI is essential; surgical treatment using best practices is associated with better outcomes for spinal cord recovery. The guidelines review and with input from experts and people with lived experience, are gathered into a single resource, making them available to spine surgeons worldwide.

Implementing evidence-based best practices in SCI clinical care ensures maximum functionality and cord recovery with fewer secondary complications following the injury. This in turn translates into a faster and more successful return to the community, leading to a better quality of life.

The Praxis-AO Spine Acute SCI Guidelines make sure that best practices in care are available widely, to standardize SCI care across B.C., Canada, and internationally. Developed in part from Praxis-supported and B.C.-based research, the guidelines present best practices at the clinician’s fingertips, and will become part of the Canadian Spinal Cord Injury Practice (Can-SCIP) Guideline.

The guidelines, developed as part of the AO Spine Knowledge Forum, seek to define new evidence-based treatment approaches, and make them accessible to the global spine surgeon community. The initiative is a resource that offers clinical guidelines in three areas:

• the timing of surgical decompression to alleviate swelling around the spinal cord that can make the initial injury much worse following SCI,
• hemodynamic management of the patient in the acute phase to ensure good fluid and blood flow to the compromised region,
• management of a SCI which can occur as a complication of surgery.

Each of these seeks to minimize further damage beyond the original injury and thus retain as much physical function as possible. Guidelines developed using Praxis-funded research will inform SCI care for optimal clinical management during the acute phase nationally and across the world.

Praxis works in conjunction with AO Spine and under the leadership of Dr. Brian Kwon and Dr. Michael Fehlings, who are both long term collaborators with the Institute. Praxis also supports the work of Dr. Kwon under the CASPER project (Canadian-American Spinal Cord Perfusion Pressure and Biomarker Study), defining clinical measures that protect spinal cord blood flow for optimal recovery post injury.

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“The guidelines have been collated by the AO Spine Knowledge Forum Spinal Cord Injury (KF SCI) in collaboration with Praxis Spinal Cord Institute in Vancouver, Canada. Both the AO and Praxis have long records of collaborating with international partners in order to generate expertise and best practices around the topic of spinal cord injury.”

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