Research Methodology & Design Research

KEY FINDING: The United States leads in the number of publications related to brachial plexus injury, followed by China and England.

KEY FINDING: Eighty percent of issues were rated to be of moderate to high significance, 83% were rated as being feasible to address, and 75% were rated as addressable using existing project resources.

KEY FINDING: The 14 sub-specialties of EBRM are not balanced, with evidence-based musculoskeletal rehabilitation medicine (EBMRM), evidence-based neurorehabilitation medicine (EBNM), and evidence-based education rehabilitation medicine (EBEDRM) being relatively well-developed.

KEY FINDING: Hypoproteinemia and pleural effusion can aggravate spinal cord edema and worsen neurological symptoms after cervical spine surgery.

KEY FINDING: NMES of the gluteus maximus muscle combined with a conventional stroke rehabilitation program was superior to a conventional stroke rehabilitation program alone, in terms of gait speed and lower-extremity function.

KEY FINDING: Intraoperative neurophysiologic monitoring is recommended for high-risk patients undergoing spine surgery, based on a review of 164 studies.

KEY FINDING: The guideline recommends that early surgery (within 24 hours of injury) should be considered for adult patients with acute spinal cord injury, no matter the severity or location of the injury.

KEY FINDING: The guideline suggests that MAP should be augmented to at least 75-80 mmHg as the “lower limit” in acute traumatic SCI patients.

KEY FINDING: The development of CPGs for SCI followed the methodology proposed by the Institute of Medicine, the Guideline International Network, and the GRADE Working Group.

KEY FINDING: Patients were 2 times more likely to recover by ≥2 grades on the ASIA Impairment Score (AIS) at 6 months and 12 months if they were decompressed within 24 hours compared to after 24 hours.