Summary of Part II

Abstract

As is apparent from the results of the investigations reported here, therapeutic skull traction can be regarded as a neurobiological experiment which, instead of protecting traumatized cervical cord, has in reality exposed it to varying degrees of non-physiological stretching and has thus kept neurological improvement at a lower level than would have been made possible by the use of methods for cord relaxation. With this insight it would seem appropriate to ask whether biomechan-ically induced intramedullary overstretching may play a similarly adverse role in other complex situations, where some relevant factors are not yet fully elucidated, for example, in trials to restore the conductivity of the severed cord by growth-inducing hormones, gene technologically enhanced reparative growth or various tvpes of grafts.