Treatment of Acute Spinal Cord Injury by Omental Transposition: A New Approach

摘要

Interest in the attempt to improve neurologic results after a spinal cord injury (SCI) was brought into focus by a recent article by Heimburger.1 His article highlighted Freeman's work carried out in the 1950s, which involved successful implantation of a cut end of an intercostal nerve directly into the spinal cord of an experimental animal distal to a complete spinal cord (SC) transection.2 The technique reportedly allowed axons to grow profusely from the end of the implanted intercostal nerve into the gray matter of the spinal cord distal to the transection site. The operation, however, is applicable only in the treatment of patients with a chronic SCI. A neurosurgical area that deserves exploration is in the evolution of new surgical approaches directed specifically toward acute spinal cord injuries because current surgical results in the treatment of an SCI have not appreciably improved over the past 50 years