Neural Regeneration Research ›› 2023, Vol. 18 ›› Issue (2): 422-427.doi: 10.4103/1673-5374.346458

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Identification of injury type using somatosensory and motor evoked potentials in a rat spinal cord injury model

Rong Li1, 2, Han-Lei Li3, Hong-Yan Cui3, Yong-Can Huang4, Yong Hu1, 5, *   

  1. 1Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology, The University of Hong Kong -Shenzhen Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong Provinve, China; 2Department of Neurosurgery, Neuroscience Center, Integrated Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Provinve, China; 3Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Tianjin, China; 4Shenzhen Engineering Laboratory of Orthopedic Regenerative Technologies, Department of Spine Surgery, Peking University Shenzhen Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong Provinve, China; 5Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China
  • Online:2023-02-15 Published:2022-08-09
  • Contact: Yong Hu, PhD, yhud@hku.hk.
  • Supported by:
    This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81871768 (to YH); Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin, China, No. 18JCYBJC29600 (to HYC); and High Level-Hospital Program, Health Commission of Guangdong Province, China, No. HKUSZH201902011 (to YH).

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Abstract: The spinal cord is at risk of injury during spinal surgery. If intraoperative spinal cord injury is identified early, irreversible impairment or loss of neurological function can be prevented. Different types of spinal cord injury result in damage to different spinal cord regions, which may cause different somatosensory and motor evoked potential signal responses. In this study, we examined electrophysiological and histopathological changes between contusion, distraction, and dislocation spinal cord injuries in a rat model. We found that contusion led to the most severe dorsal white matter injury and caused considerable attenuation of both somatosensory and motor evoked potentials. Dislocation resulted in loss of myelinated axons in the lateral region of the injured spinal cord along the rostrocaudal axis. The amplitude of attenuation in motor evoked potential responses caused by dislocation was greater than that caused by contusion. After distraction injury, extracellular spaces were slightly but not significantly enlarged; somatosensory evoked potential responses slightly decreased and motor evoked potential responses were lost. Correlation analysis showed that histological and electrophysiological findings were significantly correlated and related to injury type. Intraoperative monitoring of both somatosensory and motor evoked potentials has the potential to identify iatrogenic spinal cord injury type during surgery.

Key words: contusion injury, dislocation injury, distraction injury, electrophysiology, heterogeneity, histopathology, injury mechanism, motor evoked potential, somatosensory evoked potential, spinal cord injury