The subject is anesthetized using Isoflurane, and a laminectomy is performed at the desired site of injury. The stabilization of the spinal cord is done using transverse clamps. The contusive injury is performed using a weight of 1.85 g released from 10 mm or 20 mm for mild-moderate or moderate-severe injury respectively. The impounder must be placed perpendicularly in the center of the spinal cord at the time of impact to ensure symmetrical injury.

The SCI device has been used in studies involving mouse models to study the hind-limb functional performance after contusion SCI at T9 (Pajoohesh-Ganji et al., 2010).

Strengths 

The rats have been predominantly used in the investigatory studies and experiments of spinal cord injuries. But with the availability of transgenic animals, there has been an increase in the usage of mouse models. The SCI device can be successfully used for inducing spinal cord injuries in mice enabling investigation of the correlation between behavioral tests and the injury severity or tissue damage. The research strongly backs the inverse correlation between the severity of injury and white matter. The white matter decreases with the increased severity of the injury (McEwen and Springer, 2006). The preciseness of the modified SCI device to manipulate the extent of the injury is critical in achieving more spared peripheral white matter.

Limitations

The position of the impounder plays a critical role in inducing symmetrical injuries. Therefore, the impounder must be placed perpendicularly in the center of the spinal cord at the time of impact to ensure symmetrical injury

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