Differences in sensorimotor and functional recovery between the dominant and non-dominant upper extremity following cervical spinal cord injury

Study design: Post hoc analysis of prospective multi-national, multi-centre cohort study. Objective: Determine whether cerebral dominance influences upper extremity recovery following cervical spinal cord injury (SCI). Setting: A multi-national subset of the longitudinal GRASSP dataset (n = 127). Methods: Secondary analysis of prospective, longitudinal multicenter study of individuals with cervical SCI (n = 73). Study participants were followed for up to 12 months after a cervical SCI, and the following outcome measures were serially assessed - the Graded Redefined Assessment of Strength, Sensibility, and Prehension (GRASSP) and the International Standards for the Neurological Classification of SCI (ISNCSCI), including upper extremity motor and sensory scores. Observed recovery and relative (percent) recovery were then determined for both the GRASSP and ISNCSCI, based on change from initial to last available assessment. Results: With the exception of prehension performance (quantitative grasping) following complete cervical SCI, there were no significant differences (p < 0.05) for observed and relative (percent) recovery, between the dominant and non-dominant upper extremities, as measured using GRASSP subtests, ISNCSCI motor scores and ISNCSCI sensory scores. Conclusion: Despite well documented differences between the cerebral hemispheres, cerebral dominance appears to play a limited role in upper extremity recovery following acute cervical SCI.