Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
How some paraplegic dogs walk again after spinal injury
By Hu, H Z et al.·Published in Veterinary journal (London, England : 1997)·2018·Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Somatosensory and motor evoked potentials in dogs with chronic severe thoracolumbar spinal cord injury.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of 94 dogs, including many Dachshunds, that became paraplegic due to severe spinal cord injuries were studied to understand a phenomenon called "spinal walking," where some dogs can walk despite losing sensation in their back legs. Out of these dogs, 9 were able to walk this way, while others retained some pain sensation in their legs. The researchers found that certain brain and spinal cord signals were present in some dogs, but there was no clear link between these signals and the ability to walk or feel pain. This suggests that other factors may help dogs regain some movement after such injuries, which could improve their quality of life.
People also search for: dog spinal cord injury treatment · Dachshund paraplegic recovery · spinal walking in dogs
Abstract
Some dogs that become paraplegic after severe spinal cord injury regain ambulation on the pelvic limbs despite permanent loss of pelvic limb sensation, a phenomenon termed 'spinal walking'. Plastic changes in spinal cord circuitry are thought to mediate this form of recovery but the precise circumstances that favor its development are not known. More information on this phenomenon would be helpful because it might be possible to coax more function in chronically paraplegic animals so improving their, and their owners', quality of life. We analysed the correlation of 'spinal walking' and pelvic limb pain sensation with recordings of scalp and spinal somatosensory and transcranial magnetic motor evoked potentials. We prospectively examined 94 paraplegic dogs (including 53 Dachshunds) that had sustained T10 to L3 spinal cord injury (including 78 dogs with acute intervertebral disc herniation) at a median time of 12.0 months from injury. Nine dogs exhibited 'spinal walking' and nine other individuals had intact pelvic limb pain sensation. Of 34 tested, 12 dogs had recordable scalp somatosensory evoked potentials. Fifty-three of 59 tested dogs had recordable spinal somatosensory evoked potentials, but only six had recordable potentials cranial to the lesion. Twenty-two of 94 tested dogs had recordable transcranial magnetic motor evoked potentials in the pelvic limb(s). There was no apparent association between intact evoked potential recording and either spinal walking or intact pain sensation. We conclude that factors other than influence, or lack of influence, of input carried by spinal cord long tracts mediate recovery of spinal walking.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30089545/