Diagnostic and prognostic criteria for spine and spinal cord injuries (literature review)

Abstract

At the same time, the issues of assessing the severity of spinal cord injury are a serious problem in forensic practice, affecting not only the medical field, but also the legal field and social aspects. The aim of this review was to objectively evaluate the currently available methods for investigating functional, biological, and molecular markers of nerve tissue damage in spinal cord and spinal cord injuries of various genesis. The article highlights the diagnostic and prognostic value of neurophysiological methods, in particular electroneuromyography and neurospecific proteins of which glial fibrillary acidic protein and neurospecific enolase are the most informative and specific according to a number of experts. Formation of immediate and long-term prognostic criteria for spinal cord injury is a challenging task, and their determination will not only allow a more accurate assessment of the severity of patients with spinal cord injury, but also predict the further course and possibilities of recovery of spinal cord function activity, both in the early and in the distant posttraumatic period.