Table 6. Summary of Previous Studies on the Timing of Cervical Fusion following Spinal Cord Injury.

First Author	Year	# of Patients	Study Design	Inclusion Criteria	Cut-off Time	Findings
Aebi M [32]	1986	100	Retrospective	Cervical spinal injuries treated operatively	N/A	Early surgery associated with shorter ICU stay, lower incidence of pulmonary complications, and lower cost of treatment.
Croce MA [8]	2001	291	Retrospective	Spine fractures due to blunt trauma admitted to an urban level 1 trauma center	3 days	Early surgery associated with shorter ICU stay, lower incidence of pulmonary complications, and lower cost of treatment.
Fehlings MG [12]	2012	313	Prospective	Adults (age 18-60) with cervical SCI	1 day	Early surgery associated with higher rate of ≥ 2 grade improvement in ASIA Impairment Scale grade at 6 months follow-up. No significant difference in complication rate between early and late treatment group.
Heiden, JS [5]	1975	356	Retrospective	Operated and nonoperated patients with complete and incomplete cervical myelopathies	7 days	Patients with complete lesions did not benefit from early treatment. Early anterior cervical fusion for patients with complete sensorimotor paralysis was associated with increased pulmonary morbidity.
Levi L [17]	1991	103	Retrospective	Cervical spine trauma treated with anterior decompression	1 day	Early surgery associated with shorter hospital stay and fewer respiratory procedures required.
Mac-Thiong [13]	2012	477	Retrospective	Acute traumatic spinal cord injury at any spinal cord level with evidence of cord compression	1 day	Early surgery associated with decreased costs and length of stay.
Marshall LF [6]	1987	283	Prospective	Spinal-cord injured patients	5 days	Neurological deterioration observed in cervical spine-injured patients undergoing early surgery, but not seen in the late surgery group.
Mirza SK [31]	1999	43	Retrospective	Acute cervical spinal injury neurologic deficit treated surgically	3 days	Early vs late surgery not associated with changes in complication rate. Early surgery may improve neurologic recovery.
Papadopoulous  SM [34]	2002	91	Prospective	Acute traumatic spinal cord injury	“Immediate”	Immediate spinal column stabilization associated with improved neurologic outcome.
Pollard ME [18]	2003	412	Retrospective	Traumatic incomplete cervical spinal injuries	1 day	Neurologic recovery not associated with timing of surgery.
Sapkas GS [30]	2007	67	Retrospective	Fracture and fracture-dislocations at C3-7 treated surgically	3 days	No statistically significant difference in final neurological outcome between early and late treatment groups.
Wagner FC [33]	1982	44	Retrospective	Closed cervical spine and spinal cord injury at C3-7	2 days	Early surgery associated with shorter ICU stay, lower incidence of pulmonary complications, and lower cost of treatment.
Vaccaro AR [7]	1997	123	Randomized prospective	Traumatic spinal cord injuries at C3-T1	Early surgery: 72 hours, late surgery: >5 days	No significant difference in length of intensive care stay, improvement in American Spinal Injury Association grade, or motor score.