A simplified clinical prediction rule for prognosticating independent walking after spinal cord injury: a prospective study from a Canadian multicenter spinal cord injury registry

Hicks KE, Zhao Y, Fallah N, Rivers C, Noonan V, Plashkes T, Wai EK, Roffey DM, Tsai E, Paquet J, Attabib N, Marion T, Ahn H, Phan P; RHSCIR Network. Spine J. 2017 Jul 14. pii: S1529-9430(17)30329-7. doi: 10.1016/j.spinee.2017.05.031. [Epub ahead of print]

Summary: Severity of damage following a traumatic SCI is highly variable, which hinders the ability to accurately predict the extent of recovery. This has sparked much interest in developing better ways to predict long-term walking ability following SCI, with the hope of giving patients more informed recovery expectations. The paper found that three factors (age, motor function at L3 and sensory function at S1) found within 24 hours of injury could predict walking function, as measured by the Functional Impairment Measure at least one year after injury, with 89% accuracy. This was quite accurate when considering all patients, but less so for patients with ASIA Impairment Scale B and C injuries. Future work is focusing on B and C injuries using new statistical methods. This work is part of Praxis’ cure strategy to give better information to patients, families and clinicians about recovery of function after SCI.