Mohammad Ahmad and Ahmad Abo Shaiqah
Animal models for spinal cord injury (SCI) help in developing effective treatment modalities. The aim of the present study is to develop suitable rehabilitative intervention besides therapeutical agents for a better functional recovery. Furthermore, this research intends to bring awareness among the nurses for caring SCI patients and utilizing their passion of caring abilities in nursing research also. Young adult male rats were subjected to spinal trauma by compression method of the exposed spinal cord. Animals were allocated to five groups with eight animals in each, viz. Group 1 as normal uninjured control; group 2 as sham control with laminectomy but no spinal injury; group 3 as SCI group with laminectomy and spinal injury; group 4 as SCI treated group A that were same as group 3 but were treated with a daily injection of Tacrolimus (1 mg/kg) for 29 days and subjected to BBB behavioral test in which the hind limb function was scored from 0 (complete paralysis or paraplegia) to 21 (complete mobility), every alternate days in a “Gait Performance Tunnel” (GPT); group 5 as SCI treated group B that were same as group 4 except that the animals were also subjected to a daily enforced extra 5 walks as exercise in GPT. Although the drug had an attenuating effect on SCI in both treated groups A and B the recovery in Group-B was significantly (p<0.001) greater than Group-A. It is concluded that if the SCI animals are subjected to enforced daily behavioral exercises in addition to drug treatment, it can improve functional recovery at a faster rate and can be considered as a rehabilitative activity to accentuate therapeutic treatments. Furthermore, the present study can be a source of inspiration for the nurses to develop their nursing skills and research abilities.