Design and purpose of the project

Methodology
Patients with acute traumatic spinal cord injury will be tested and documented within a fixed time schedule (acute, 4, 12, 24 and 48 weeks) after spinal cord injury and must comply with clearly defined inclusion criteria. The examinations consist of a standard set of neurological, neurophysiological and functional assessments. The collected data from each center is sent to the coordinating center (Zurich) in regulary time intervals to be joined into a central database.

A total of 17 paraplegic centers build up a close collaboration to discuss, plan and realize prospective studies within the scope of:

• the relationship between electrophysiological, neurophysiological and functional measurements
• the prognostic value of the measurement outcome
  
• the mechanisms of spontaneous recovery
• investigate the efficacy of new treatment strategies.

Progress
In total over 1000 patients (August 2006) with spinal cord injury are included in the EMSCI database. Several publications have emerged by the member hospitals of the project.  Finally a new network EUCTN (European clinical trials network) has been founded to serve as contact for industrial clinical trials.

News
2008-05-20: The paper: "Evolution of tibial SEEP after traumatic spinal cord injury: Baseline for clinical trials" by Martina Spiess, Martin Schubert, Uta Kliesch and Pascal Halder won the Ludwig-Guttman-Award 2008!

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