Experimental traumatic spinal cord injury.

Animal models are important to develop therapies for individuals suffering from spinal cord injuries. For this purpose, rats are commonly preferred. In sharp injury models, spinal cord is completely or incompletely cut to assess axonal regeneration. On the other hand, spinal cord is compressed or contused to mimic the human injury in blunt injury models for understanding as well as managing the secondary pathophysiologic processes following injury. Especially, contusions are thought to be biomechanically similar to vertebral fractures and/or dislocations and thus provide the most realistic experimental setting in which to test potential neuroprotective and regenerative strategies.