Application of Modest Hypothermia in Patients with Acute Traumatic Cervical Spine Injury: A Pilot Study

This study investigates whether cooling the body (hypothermia) can help people with recent spinal cord injuries in the neck area improve their neurological function. Researchers compared patients who received hypothermia treatment along with surgery to those who had surgery alone. The study found that those in the hypothermia group showed earlier signs of improvement in motor and sensory functions compared to the group that didn't receive the cooling treatment. This suggests that hypothermia may have a beneficial effect in the initial recovery phase. While the initial results were promising, the long-term follow-up didn't show a significant difference between the two groups. This indicates that while hypothermia might provide an early boost, its long-term impact on recovery may be limited.

• 1
  Patients treated with hypothermia showed statistically significant early improvement in ASIA motor and sensory scores at the 2-week follow-up compared to the normothermia group.
• 2
  At the final follow-up, the change in ASIA motor scores of Group A was 46 (11.5-70.5) and Group B 13 (4.5-58.0), whereas ASIA sensory scores were 118 (24.75-186.5) and 29 (15.25-124.0) in Group A and Group B, respectively.
• 3
  Five subjects in the hypothermia group improved to AIS grade C or D, compared to two in the normothermia group, suggesting a trend towards better neurological improvement with hypothermia.