Virginia Research Day 2025

Medical Student Research Clinical

21 Incidence and Characteristics of Spinal Cord Concussion: A Meta-Analysis

Christian K. Woo, B.S.; Kelly Roballo, DVM, PhD Corresponding author: cwoo01@vcom.edu

Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine - Virginia Campus

Spinal cord concussion, a variant of mild spinal cord injury, distinguishes itself by its transient nature, with complete resolution of neurological sequelae within 48 hours. Sensory symptoms such as numbness, tingling, loss of sensation, or pain can occur, as well as motor symptoms ranging from weakness to complete paralysis. Unlike other central nervous system injuries, spinal cord concussion has been significantly less studied, specifically, regarding its incidence and epidemiology. In this study, we conducted a meta-analysis to investigate the incidence, affected population, and major mechanisms that generated a spinal cord concussion. For the meta-analysis, our inclusion criteria were patient individualities (age, biological sex, ethnicity),

mechanisms of the spinal cord injury, and type of spinal cord injury (sports, trauma, etc.). The data source used was PubMed, it mainly utilized free text but also used MeSH terms to narrow our search (the following terms were included: Spinal Cord Injuries, Spinal Cord/diagnostic imaging), and we included the available literature from the last 30 years. The search found 83 total articles and from those 55 articles met our inclusion criteria. Of these 55 articles, 16 were retrospective study, 18 were case series or case reports, 7 were systematic review and/or meta analysis, 10 were narrative or literature reviews, and 4 were other miscellaneous study types. From our analysis, we identified that out of all spinal cord injuries described in the studies, 12.22% was a results

of mild spinal cord trauma, 5.9% from cervical cord neurapraxia, 16.29% was spinal cord injury without radiographic abnormality, and 22.40% was described as spinal cord concussion. In terms of affected age, spinal cord concussion was more common in younger, active populations, disproportionally affects males, and has been most described among athletes, especially football and rugby. Furthermore, it is more common in the cervical spine, which is more vulnerable to hyperextension and hyperflexion injuries as well as injuries from vertical forces. With this study,we want to increase awareness of spinal cord concussion and provide clinicians with insight into which epidemiological factors are the most common predictors of spinal cord concussion.

145 2025 Research Recognition Day