SynthesisJournal of neurotrauma2016
Methylprednisolone for the Treatment of Patients with Acute Spinal Cord Injuries: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Synthesis in Journal of neurotrauma, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 70 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
70 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 178 citations in OpenAlex.
- Incidence, timing, and risk factors for development of gastrointestinal bleeding in acute traumatic spinal cord injury: A systematic review.The journal of spinal cord medicine · 2026Pooled it
- An updated systematic review of neuroprotective agents in the treatment of spinal cord injury.Neurosurgical review · 2024Pooled it
- Tracing the evolving dynamics and research hotspots of spinal cord injury and surgical decompression from 1975 to 2024: a bibliometric analysis.Frontiers in neurology · 2024Pooled it
- Remarkable Recovery After Delayed High-Dose Methylprednisolone in a Rare Case of Penetrating Spinal Cord Injury.Annals of clinical and translational neurology · 2026Article
- Spinal Cord Infarction Versus Idiopathic Transverse Myelitis: Clinical, Radiological, and Functional Insights From a Retrospective Cohort Study.Annals of clinical and translational neurology · 2026Observational
- Mortality following surgical management of traumatic sub-axial cervical spine injuries in a South African tertiary centre.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2026Observational
- Restoring neuroplasticity after CNS trauma: cell therapy approaches in spinal cord and traumatic brain injury.Journal of translational medicine · 2026Review
- Serotonergic System-Targeted Nucleic Acid Hydrogel Coordinates Excitability Restoration and Circuit Reconstruction for Spinal Cord Injury Therapy.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2026Article
- MSC-derived extracellular vesicles for spinal cord injury: inflammatory microenvironment modulation, stage-dependent repair mechanisms, and translational challenges.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2026Review
- The beneficial effect of α-lipoic acid on spinal cord injury repair in rats is mediated through inhibition of oxidative stress: A transcriptomic analysis.The journal of spinal cord medicine · 2025Article
- Perioperative management in acute and chronic spinal cord injury, narrative review.Journal of anesthesia, analgesia and critical care · 2025Review
- Neuroprotective Riluzole-Releasing Electrospun Implants for Spinal Cord Injury.Molecular pharmaceutics · 2025Article
- Effect of local epidural application of methylprednisolone acetate on time to ambulation in non-ambulatory dogs with thoracolumbar intervertebral disc disease: A prospective randomised, blinded control trial.The Veterinary record · 2025Article
- Therapeutic Potential of Vitamin B Complex in Peripheral Nerve Injury Recovery: An Experimental Rat Model Study.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2024Article
- Neurotrauma-From Injury to Repair: Clinical Perspectives, Cellular Mechanisms and Promoting Regeneration of the Injured Brain and Spinal Cord.Biomedicines · 2024Review
- Combined transplantation of hiPSC-NSC and hMSC ameliorated neuroinflammation and promoted neuroregeneration in acute spinal cord injury.Stem cell research & therapy · 2024Article
- Wnt signaling pathway in spinal cord injury: from mechanisms to potential applications.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2024Review
- Advancements in neuroregenerative and neuroprotective therapies for traumatic spinal cord injury.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2024Review
- A comprehensive look at the psychoneuroimmunoendocrinology of spinal cord injury and its progression: mechanisms and clinical opportunities.Military Medical Research · 2023Review
- Article
10 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Previous meta-analyses of methylprednisolone (MPS) for patients with acute traumatic spinal cord injuries (TSCIs) have not addressed confidence in the quality of evidence used for pooled effect estimates, and new primary studies have been recently published. We aimed to determine whether MPS improves motor recovery and is associated with increased risks for adverse events. We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, and The Cochrane Library, and two reviewers independently screened articles, extracted data, and evaluated risk of bias. We pooled outcomes from randomized, controlled trials (RCTs) and controlled observational studies separately and used the Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation approach to evaluate confidence. We included four RCTs and 17 observational studies. MPS was not associated with an increase in long-term motor score recovery (two RCTs: 335 participants; mean difference [MD], -1.11; 95% confidence interval [CI], -4.75 to 2.53; p = 0.55, low confidence; two observational studies: 528 participants; MD, 1.37; 95% CI, -3.08 to 5.83; p = 0.55, very low confidence) or improvement by at least one motor grade (three observational studies: 383 participants; risk ratio [RR], 0.84; 95% CI, 0.53-1.33; p = 0.46, very low confidence). Evidence from two RCTs demonstrated superior short-term motor score improvement if MPS was administered within 8 h of injury (two RCTs: 250 participants; MD, 4.46; 95% CI, 0.97-7.94; p = 0.01, low confidence), but risk of bias and imprecision limit confidence in these findings. Observational studies demonstrated a significantly increased risk for gastrointestinal bleeding (nine studies: 2857 participants; RR, 2.18; 95% CI, 1.13-4.19; p = 0.02, very low confidence), but RCTs did not. Pooled evidence does not demonstrate a significant long-term benefit for MPS in patients with acute TSCIs and suggests it may be associated with increased gastrointestinal bleeding. These findings support current guidelines against routine use, but strong recommendations are not warranted because confidence in the effect estimates is limited.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.