ArticleNeurotrauma reports2020
A Randomized Controlled Trial of Early versus Late Surgical Decompression for Thoracic and Thoracolumbar Spinal Cord Injury in 73 Patients.
Article in Neurotrauma reports, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 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
27 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 36 citations in OpenAlex.
- The time-dependent efficacy of early surgical decompression in patients with traumatic spinal cord injury: A systematic review and meta-analysis.The journal of spinal cord medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Impact of ultra-early, early and delayed decompression on neurological and clinical outcomes in spinal cord injury: A systematic review and meta-analysis.The journal of spinal cord medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Optimal timing of surgical decompression for acute cervical spinal cord injury: a systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials.Frontiers in neurologyPooled it
- Is time really spine? Early versus delayed surgical decompression in traumatic spinal cord injury: a systematic review and meta-analysis.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 · 2026Review
- Analyzing spinal cord injury patients: Directly admitted compared to individuals transferred into level I trauma centers.The journal of spinal cord medicine · 2026Article
- Ultra-early surgery within 12 hours is associated with improved short-term outcomes after traumatic cervical spinal cord injury: A retrospective cohort study.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 · 2026Article
- Complication rates in thoracolumbar fracture-dislocations with and without neurological injury.Revista de la Facultad de Ciencias Medicas (Cordoba, Argentina) · 2026Article
- Impact of early versus delayed surgery on 30-day outcomes in traumatic cervical spinal cord injury: a single-center propensity score-matched cohort study.European journal of medical research · 2026Article
- Updated perspective: STAT surgery for significant cauda equina syndromes.Surgical neurology international · 2026Review
- Early versus Delayed Surgical Decompression in Spinal Cord Injury: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Asian journal of neurosurgery · 2025Review
- Evaluating the role of surgical timing on clinical outcomes in traumatic spinal cord injury: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Surgical neurology international · 2025Review
- Thoracolumbar spinal cord injury: management, techniques, timing.European journal of trauma and emergency surgery : official publication of the European Trauma Society · 2024Review
- ESTES recommendation on thoracolumbar spine fractures : January 2023.European journal of trauma and emergency surgery : official publication of the European Trauma Society · 2024Review
- Quality of in-hospital care in traumatic spinal column and cord injuries (TSC/SCI) in I.R Iran.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 · 2024Review
- Timing of Decompressive Surgery in Patients With Acute Spinal Cord Injury: Systematic Review Update.Global spine journal · 2024Article
- An Update of a Clinical Practice Guideline for the Management of Patients With Acute Spinal Cord Injury: Recommendations on the Role and Timing of Decompressive Surgery.Global spine journal · 2024Article
- The 2023 AO Spine-Praxis Guidelines in Acute Spinal Cord Injury: What Have We Learned? What Are the Critical Knowledge Gaps and Barriers to Implementation?Global spine journal · 2024Article
- Ultra-Early (<5 Hours) Decompression for Thoracolumbar Spinal Cord Injury: A Case Series.Cureus · 2024Article
- Pediatric Spinal Cord Injury: A Review.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Adopting and adapting clinical practice guidelines for timing of decompressive surgery in acute spinal cord injury from a developed world context to a developing region.Acta neurochirurgica · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
17 authors at 8 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Convincing clinical evidence exists to support early surgical decompression in the setting of cervical spinal cord injury (SCI). However, clinical evidence on the effect of early surgery in patients with thoracic and thoracolumbar (from T1 to L1 [T1-L1]) SCI is lacking and a critical knowledge gap remains. This randomized controlled trial (RCT) sought to evaluate the safety and efficacy of early (<24 h) compared with late (24-72 h) decompressive surgery after T1-L1 SCI. From 2010 to 2018, patients (≥16 years of age) with acute T1-L1 SCI presenting to a single trauma center were randomized to receive either early (<24 h) or late (24-72 h) surgical decompression. The primary outcome was an ordinal change in American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) Impairment Scale (AIS) grade at 12-month follow-up. Secondary outcomes included complications and change in ASIA motor score (AMS) at 12 months. Outcome assessors were blinded to treatment assignment. Of 73 individuals whose treatment followed the study protocol, 37 received early surgery and 36 underwent late surgery. The mean age was 29.74 ± 11.4 years. In the early group 45.9% of patients and in the late group 33.3% of patients had a ≥1-grade improvement in AIS (odds ratio [OR] 1.70, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.66-4.39,
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.