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. 2017 Dec;11(6):903-907.
doi: 10.4184/asj.2017.11.6.903. Epub 2017 Dec 7.

Effects of Atorvastatin in Patients with Acute Spinal Cord Injury

Javad Aghazadeh  1 , Parviz Samadi Motlagh  1 , Firooz Salehpour  1 , Ali Meshkini  1 , Majid Fatehi  1 , Farhad Mirzaei  1 , Seyed Ahmad Naseri Alavi  1
Affiliations

Effects of Atorvastatin in Patients with Acute Spinal Cord Injury

Javad Aghazadeh et al. Asian Spine J. 2017 Dec.

Abstract

Study design: Clinical trial study.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of atorvastatin on sensory and motor function in patients with acute spinal cord injury.

Overview of literature: The prevalence and incidence of traumatic spinal cord injury are increasing. Statins are well established for use in hypercholesterolemia as well as during anti-inflammatory events.

Methods: This clinical trial study included 60 patients with acute spinal cord injury. These were randomly divided into two groups: the case group which received atorvastatin and also underwent surgical therapy and the control group which only underwent surgical therapy.

Results: The severity of spinal cord lesions was evaluated based on the Frankel grade at three periods; this showed no significant difference between the two groups. Comparisons of the levels of pain between the groups based on a Visual Analog Scale system showed no significant difference at the three periods.

Conclusions: We observed no improvement at the 3- and 6-month follow-up in patients who were administered atorvastatin. However, a comparison of the two groups based on pain severity demonstrated a significant difference, suggesting that atorvastatin had a positive effect on patients with spinal cord injury.

Keywords: Atorvastatin; Pain; Spinal cord injuries; Wound and injuries.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

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