Browsing by Author "Boakye, Max"

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    Acute Adverse Events After Spinal Cord Injury and Their Relationship to Long-term Neurologic and Functional Outcomes: Analysis From the North American Clinical Trials Network for Spinal Cord Injury.
    (Critical care medicine, 2019-11) Jiang, Fan; Jaja, Blessing NR; Kurpad, Shekar N; Badhiwala, Jetan H; Aarabi, Bizhan; Grossman, Robert G; Harrop, James S; Guest, Jim D; Schär, Ralph T; Shaffrey, Chris I; Boakye, Max; Toups, Elizabeth G; Wilson, Jefferson R; Fehlings, Michael G; North American Clinical Trials Network Collaborators

    Objectives

    There are few contemporary, prospective multicenter series on the spectrum of acute adverse events and their relationship to long-term outcomes after traumatic spinal cord injury. The goal of this study is to assess the prevalence of adverse events after traumatic spinal cord injury and to evaluate the effects on long-term clinical outcome.

    Design

    Multicenter prospective registry.

    Setting

    Consortium of 11 university-affiliated medical centers in the North American Clinical Trials Network.

    Patients

    Eight-hundred one spinal cord injury patients enrolled by participating centers.

    Interventions

    Appropriate spinal cord injury treatment at individual centers.

    Measurements and main results

    A total of 2,303 adverse events were recorded for 502 patients (63%). Penalized maximum logistic regression models were fitted to estimate the likelihood of neurologic recovery (ASIA Impairment Scale improvement ≥ 1 grade point) and functional outcomes in subjects who developed adverse events at 6 months postinjury. After accounting for potential confounders, the group that developed adverse events showed less neurologic recovery (odds ratio, 0.55; 95% CI, 0.32-0.96) and was more likely to require assisted breathing (odds ratio, 6.55; 95% CI, 1.17-36.67); dependent ambulation (odds ratio, 7.38; 95% CI, 4.35-13.06) and have impaired bladder (odds ratio, 9.63; 95% CI, 5.19-17.87) or bowel function (odds ratio, 7.86; 95% CI, 4.31-14.32) measured using the Spinal Cord Independence Measure subscores.

    Conclusions

    Results from this contemporary series demonstrate that acute adverse events are common and are associated with worsened long-term outcomes after traumatic spinal cord injury.
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    Association of Pneumonia, Wound Infection, and Sepsis with Clinical Outcomes after Acute Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury.
    (Journal of neurotrauma, 2019-11) Jaja, Blessing NR; Jiang, Fan; Badhiwala, Jetan H; Schär, Ralph; Kurpad, Shekar; Grossman, Robert G; Harrop, James S; Guest, Jim D; Toups, Elizabeth G; Shaffrey, Chris I; Aarabi, Bizhan; Boakye, Max; Fehlings, Michael G; Wilson, Jefferson R
    Pneumonia, wound infections, and sepsis (PWS) are the leading causes of acute mortality after traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI). However, the impact of PWS on neurological and functional outcomes is largely unknown. The present study analyzed participants from the prospective North American Clinical Trials Network (NACTN) registry and the Surgical Timing in Acute SCI Study (STASCIS) for the association between PWS and functional outcome (assessed as Spinal Cord Independence Measure subscores for respiration and indoor ambulation) at 6 months post-injury. Neurological outcome was analyzed as a secondary end-point. Among 1299 participants studied, 180 (14%) developed PWS during the acute admission. Compared with those without PWS, participants with PWS were mostly male (76% vs. 86%; p = 0.007), or presented with mostly American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale (AIS) grade A injury (36% vs. 61%; p < 0.001). There were no statistical differences between participants with or without PWS with respect to time from injury to surgery, and administration of steroids. Dominance analysis showed injury level, baseline AIS grade, and subject pre-morbid medical status collectively accounted for 77.7% of the predicted variance of PWS. Regression analysis indicated subjects with PWS demonstrated higher odds for respiratory (odds ratio [OR] 3.91, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.42-10.79) and ambulatory (OR 3.94, 95% CI: 1.50-10.38) support at 6 month follow-up in adjusted analysis. This study has shown an association between PWS occurring during acute admission and poorer functional outcomes following SCI.
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    Trajectory-Based Classification of Recovery in Sensorimotor Complete Traumatic Cervical Spinal Cord Injury.
    (Neurology, 2021-04) Jaja, Blessing NR; Badhiwala, Jetan; Guest, James; Harrop, James; Shaffrey, Chris; Boakye, Max; Kurpad, Shekar; Grossman, Robert; Toups, Elizabeth; Geisler, Fred; Kwon, Brian; Aarabi, Bizhan; Kotter, Mark; Fehlings, Michael G; Wilson, Jefferson R
    To test the hypothesis that sensorimotor complete traumatic cervical spinal cord injury is a heterogenous clinical entity comprising several subpopulations that follow fundamentally different trajectories of neurologic recovery. We analyzed demographic and injury data from 655 patients who were pooled from 4 prospective longitudinal multicenter studies. Group based trajectory modeling was applied to model neurologic recovery trajectories over the initial 12-months postinjury and to identify predictors of recovery trajectories. Neurologic outcomes included: Upper Extremity Motor Score, Total Motor Scores and AIS grade improvement. The analysis identified 3 distinct trajectories of neurologic recovery. These clinical courses included: (1) Marginal recovery trajectory: characterized by minimal or no improvement in motor strength or change in AIS grade status (remained grade A); (2) Moderate recovery trajectory: characterized by low baseline motor scores that improved approximately 13 points; or AIS conversion of one grade point; (3) Good recovery trajectory: characterized by baseline motor scores in the upper quartile that improved to near maximum values within 3 months of injury. Patients following the moderate or good recovery trajectories were of younger age, had more caudally located injuries, a higher degree of preserved motor and sensory function at baseline examination and exhibited a greater extent of motor and sensory function in the zone of partial preservation. Cervical complete SCI can be classified into one of 3 distinct subpopulations with fundamentally different trajectories of neurologic recovery. This study defines unique clinical phenotypes based on potential for recovery, rather than baseline severity of injury alone. This approach may prove beneficial in clinical prognostication and in the design and interpretation of clinical trials in SCI.