Our past pre-clinical work demonstrated that traumatic spinal cord injury triggers a systemic inflammatory response that contributes to a high incidence of secondary organ complications, particularly after a cervical or high-level thoracic injury and that the liver plays a key role in initiating and propagating the systemic inflammatory response. Based on these results our further clinical work reported on the prevalence and prognostic importance of systemic inflammatory response criteria after spinal cord injury.
In addition to these pre-clinical and clinical lines of investigation our group also works collaboratively with the Rick Hansen Institute to improve care delivery for our patients with spinal cord injury by adopting best practices to maximize functional recovery and prevent secondary complications. Our team is currently a participating site in the Rick Hansen Spinal Cord Injury Registry, as well as in the Minocycline in acute spinal cord injury randomized controlled trial, and the Canadian Multicenter CSF Pressure Monitoring and Biomarker Study (CAMPER). Minocycline in spinal cord injury is a multi-centre randomized clinical trial of a neuroprotective therapeutic intervention aimed at preventing secondary spinal cord damage and improving functional recovery. CAMPER is a multi-centre prospective observational study aimed at understanding the pathophysiology of spinal cord injury. Results have shown that spinal cord perfusion pressure and certain protein markers predict neurological recovery in acute spinal cord injury.
Select Publications
Fleming JC, Bailey CS, Hundt, H, Gurr KR, Bailey SI, Cepinskas G, Lawendy A-R, Badhwar A. Remote inflammatory response in liver is dependent on the segmental level of spinal cord injury. Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery. 72(5): pg. 1194-1201, May 2012.
Leelapattana P, Fleming J, Gurr KR, Bailey SI, Parry N, Bailey CS. Predicting the need for tracheostomy in patients with cervical spinal cord injury. Journal of trauma and acute care surgery 73: 880-884, 2012.
Kesani AK, Urquhart J, Bedard N, Leelapattana P, Siddiqi F, Gurr K, Bailey CS. Systemic inflammatory response syndrome in spinal cord syndrome in spinal cord injury patients: Does its presence at admission affect patient outcomes? Journal of Neurosurgery Spine 21: 296-302, August 2014.
Streijger F, Skinnider MA, Rogalski JC, Balshaw R, Shannon CP, Prudova A, Belanger L, Ritchie L, Tsang A, Christie S, Parent S, Mac-Thiong JM, Bailey C, Urquhart J, Ailon T, Paquette S, Boyd M, Street J, Fisher CG, Dvorak MF, Borchers CVH, Foster LJ, Kwon BK. A targeted proteomics analysis of cerebrospinal fluid after acute human spinal cord injury. Journal of Neurotrauma 34:2054-2068, June 2017.
Squair JW, Belanger LM, Tsang A, Ritchie L, Mac-Thiong JM, Parent S, Christie S, Bailey C, Dhall S, Street J, Ailon T, Paquette S, Dea N, Fisher CG, Dvorak MF, West CR, Kwon BK. Spinal cord perfusion pressure predicts neurological recovery in acute spinal cord injury. Neurology 89:1660-1667 October 2017.
Noonan, VK, Thorgood NP, Joshi PB, Fehling MG, Craven BC, Linassi AG, Fourney DR, Kwon BK, Bailey CS, Tsai EC, Drew BM, Ahn H, Tsui D, Dvorak MF. Meeting the privacy requirements for the development of a multi-centre patient registry in Canada: The Rick Hansen Spinal Cord Injury Registry. Healthcare policy 8:87-99, May 2013.