Biomechanical insights on spinal cord injury from rodent models

Spinal cord injury (SCI) begins with mechanical insult to the cord (i.e. primary injury), followed by a myriad of biological events such as ischemia, inflammation, etc. that further damage the cord (i.e. secondary injury). The wide variability, or heterogeneity, in human SCI is due partially to biomechanical factors such as injury mechanism, impact velocity, and residual compression on the spinal cord. This review presentation will summarize our current knowledge surrounding the biomechancial factors that affect SCI as gleaned from rodent models.