Somatosensory-evoked and dermatomal-evoked potentials are not clinically useful in the prognostication of acute spinal cord injury.

This study examined the ability of somatosensory-evoked and dermatomal-evoked potentials to predict motor return after acute spinal cord injury. Fifty-seven of 102 patients who were studied with somatosensory-evoked potentials and dermatomal-evoked potentials were followed for more than 1 year, and their initial electrophysiologic studies were correlated with motor improvement. No patient with a complete spinal cord injury on initial physical evaluation ever developed motor return. An initial examination demonstrating incomplete spinal cord injury heralded a result of walking or better in 56.4% of incomplete patients with spinal cord injury. Both the initial physical examination and evoked potentials were reasonable predictors of further motor improvement. However, evoked potentials added little or no useful prognostic information to the initial physical examination in either complete or incomplete spinal cord injury patient groups.