A Review of the Neuropathology of Human Spinal Cord Injury with Emphasis on Special Features

A judicious understanding of the basic neuropathology of spinal cord injuries (SCI) is essential knowledge for the clinician responsible for SCI management. An appreciation of the nature of human SCI is also necessary for the neuroscientist searching for a cure. The neuropathology of human SCI descr...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The journal of spinal cord medicine 1999-01, Vol.22 (2), p.119-124
Main Author: Kakulas, A. Byron
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Axons - pathology
human spinal cord injury
Humans
Middle Aged
Myelin Sheath - pathology
Neuropathology
Spinal Cord - pathology
Spinal Cord Injuries - pathology
Tissue Banks
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A judicious understanding of the basic neuropathology of spinal cord injuries (SCI) is essential knowledge for the clinician responsible for SCI management. An appreciation of the nature of human SCI is also necessary for the neuroscientist searching for a cure. The neuropathology of human SCI described here is derived from the study of 564 cases of spinal cord trauma held in a tissue bank and database of the Department of Neuropathology, Royal Perth Hospital in Australia. The main features of SCI neuropathology are reviewed and special aspects such as early axonal lesions, traumatic demyelination-remyelination, and quantification of white matter tracts are reported in more detail. One of the remarkable outcomes of this work is the finding that the majority of SCI patients have a proportion of spinal corcJ white matter maintained across the level of the lesion, an observation that has important therapeutic implications. (J Spinal Cord Med 1999;22:119-124)
ISSN:1079-0268
2045-7723
DOI:10.1080/10790268.1999.11719557