Spinal Cord Injury

Rowena recently completed her PhD thesis entitled, ‘Cellular Pathology and Apoptosis in Experimental and Human Acute and Chronic Compressive Myelopathy’.

Her research examined the effect of spinal cord compression from both acute trauma and more gradual compression due to bony outgrowths or tumour. It is thought that a particular form of cell death known as ‘apoptosis’ may play an important role in the pathophysiology and functional outcome after spinal cord compression.

Her research found evidence of apoptosis as well as axonal injury after compression, and studied the effect of spinal decompression surgery on these cellular changes.