| Summary: | ABSTRACT Spinal cord injuries can have serious consequences for the individual, such as loss of motor function, sensory impairment, and alteration of physiological systems functions. Treatments for spinal cord injuries involve the use of drugs and surgical approaches. In the surgical field, there is a question about the ideal time after the trauma to perform the surgical procedure. The studies divide the time until surgery after the injury into two categories: “early” and “late”. To review the scientific literature on this topic, and to assess the relative effectiveness of early versus late decompressive surgery, we considered early intervention up to 24 hours and late intervention from 24 hours after the injury. For this, we performed a literature review and selected retrospective, prospective observational studies, clinical studies, and reviews with meta-analysis that compared the recovery time of patients with spinal cord injury after surgeries performed within 24 hours (early) and after 24 hours (late). The results showed potential for neurological improvement with early or even ultra-early surgical decompression (up to 12 hours) in patients with traumatic cervical spinal cord injury. On the other hand, reports about the advantage of early decompression when there is a thoracic injury are scarce. In addition to the time to decompression, the concomitant use of some drugs seems to play an important role in patients’ recovery. Level of Evidence II; Literature review.
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