A taxonomy for consistent handling of conditions not related to the spinal cord injury (SCI) in the International Standards for Neurological Classification of SCI (ISNCSCI)

The study addresses the need for standardized documentation of non-SCI-related conditions that can affect the accuracy of SCI classifications. The proposed taxonomy uses an asterisk to tag sensory or motor scores impacted by non-SCI conditions. The taxonomy requires examiners to document the non-SCI condition and how it affects the classification in a comments box. This ensures consistent scoring and classification even when non-SCI conditions are present. The taxonomy aims to improve the accuracy of ISNCSCI classifications by allowing clinicians to account for superimposed conditions such as pain or nerve damage unrelated to the spinal cord injury itself.

• 1
  The extended “*”-tag concept allows for consistent documentation, scoring, and classification of sensory and motor examination results impacted by non-SCI conditions.
• 2
  Workshop participants agreed on the clinical relevance, logic, soundness, ease of understanding, communicability, and applicability in daily work of the taxonomy.
• 3
  The taxonomy was released with the 2019 ISNCSCI revision to increase the accuracy of ISNCSCI classifications.