Spinal Cord Injuries — Evaluation of the Bulbocavernosus Reflex After Acute Spinal Cord Injury
Citation(s)
Consortium for Spinal Cord Medicine Early acute management in adults with spinal cord injury: a clinical practice guideline for health-care professionals. J Spinal Cord Med. 2008;31(4):403-79.
Hachem LD, Ahuja CS, Fehlings MG Assessment and management of acute spinal cord injury: From point of injury to rehabilitation. J Spinal Cord Med. 2017 Nov;40(6):665-675. doi: 10.1080/10790268.2017.1329076. Epub 2017 Jun 1. Review.
Richard-Denis A, Thompson C, Mac-Thiong JM Quality of life in the subacute period following a cervical traumatic spinal cord injury based on the initial severity of the injury: a prospective cohort study. Spinal Cord. 2018 Nov;56(11):1042-1050. doi: 10.1038/s41393-018-0178-8. Epub 2018 Jul 3.
Interventional studies are often prospective and are specifically tailored to evaluate direct impacts of treatment or preventive measures on disease.
Observational studies are often retrospective and are used to assess potential causation in exposure-outcome relationships and therefore influence preventive methods.
Expanded access is a means by which manufacturers make investigational new drugs available, under certain circumstances, to treat a patient(s) with a serious disease or condition who cannot participate in a controlled clinical trial.
Clinical trials are conducted in a series of steps, called phases - each phase is designed to answer a separate research question.
Phase 1: Researchers test a new drug or treatment in a small group of people for the first time to evaluate its safety, determine a safe dosage range, and identify side effects.
Phase 2: The drug or treatment is given to a larger group of people to see if it is effective and to further evaluate its safety.
Phase 3: The drug or treatment is given to large groups of people to confirm its effectiveness, monitor side effects, compare it to commonly used treatments, and collect information that will allow the drug or treatment to be used safely.
Phase 4: Studies are done after the drug or treatment has been marketed to gather information on the drug's effect in various populations and any side effects associated with long-term use.
