The Nutritional Status and the Clinical Outcomes of Patients With a Spinal Cord Injury Using Nutritional Screening Tools.

Objective: To assess the nutritional status of Korean patients with spinal cord injury (SCI), identify the predictors of undernutrition, and investigate the relationship between undernutrition and clinical outcomes.

Methods: A retrospective study design was used to determine the nutritional status of 130 patients over 19 years old admitted to the rehabilitation hospital of Yonsei University Health System between June 2015 and February 2017. The nutritional status was assessed using the malnutrition universal screening tool (MUST) and the spinal nutrition screening tool (SNST).

Effect of Patient Education on Reducing Medication in Spinal Cord Injury Patients With Neuropathic Pain.

Objective: To determine whether providing education about the disease pathophysiology and drug mechanisms and side effects, would be effective for reducing the use of pain medication while appropriately managing neurogenic pain in spinal cord injury (SCI) patients.

Methods: In this prospective study, 109 patients with an SCI and neuropathic pain, participated in an educational pain management program. This comprehensive program was specifically created, for patients with an SCI and neuropathic pain.

Monitoring of Motor and Somatosensory Evoked Potentials During Spine Surgery: Intraoperative Changes and Postoperative Outcomes.

Objective: To evaluate whether the combination of muscle motor evoked potentials (mMEPs) and somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) measured during spinal surgery can predict immediate and permanent postoperative motor deficits.

Methods: mMEP and SEP was monitored in patients undergoing spinal surgery between November 2012 and July 2014. mMEPs were elicited by a train of transcranial electrical stimulation over the motor cortex and recorded from the upper/lower limbs.