Acta Vet. Brno 2019, 88: 207-217

https://doi.org/10.2754/avb201988020207

A review of novel trends in management of canine spinal cord injury

Igor Šulla1, Slavomír Horňák2, Valent Ledecký2, Vladimír Balik3

1University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy, Department of Anatomy, Histology and Physiology, Košice, Slovakia
2University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy, Small Animals Clinic, Košice, Slovakia
3Palacky University, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Institute of Molecular and Translational Medicine, Olomouc, Czech Republic

Received January 12, 2019
Accepted April 23, 2019

Severe spinal cord injury (SCI) causing significant morbidity and mortality remains one of the most challenging problems in both human and veterinary medicine. Due to the restricted regeneration potential of the central nervous system (CNS) in mammals, the neurological deficit caused by spinal cord (SC) injury is permanent, and no therapeutic measures are able to completely restore neurological functions either in primates or in non-primate animals with traumatic tetraparesis/tetraplegia or paraparesis/paraplegia. The constant progress in the understanding of pathophysiologic events developing after spinal cord trauma constitute an unremitting inspiration for neuroscientists and health care professionals to test novel medicaments and treatment strategies to cope with this situation. Recent experimental studies and preclinical trials have delivered promising results. The aim of this review is a presentation of generally accepted methods of management of dogs with SCI as well as a report on new therapeutic modalities, and comment on their potential for clinical translation. The research strategy involved a search of PubMed, Medline, and ISI Web of Science from January 2010 to December 2018 using the terms “spinal cord injuryˮ and “management of spinal traumaˮ in the English language literature. References from selected papers were also scanned and evaluated for relevance.

Funding

The accumulation and study of literature dealing with different aspects of spinal cord injury treatment as well as preparation of the presented paper was supported by the grant of the Agency of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic for the Structural Funds of EU, ITMS 26220220202 and VEGA grant No 1/0898/15.

References

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