Neurologic recovery following injuries to the cervical spinal cord and nerve roots.

From this literature, we have made the following conclusions: (1) Complete cord lesions do not recover cord functional motor control. (2) Complete lesions recover one nerve root level of function at the fracture site. (3) Partial lesions recover partially. (4) The less the injury, the greater the recovery. (5) Brown-Sequard lesions recover more than central cord syndromes, which recover more than anterior cord syndromes. (6) Reduction of dislocated facets facilitates nerve root recovery. (7) Better documentation of specific pathology and recovery rates are necessary to determine the surgical benefits in complete lesions, incomplete lesions, and nerve root recovery.