BACKGROUND: For the treatment of spinal cord injury, any pathological changes of the injured tissue should be primarily corrected or reversed. Any remaining fibrous function and neurons with intact structure should be retained, and the toxic substances caused by ischemia-hypoxia following spinal cord injury, should be eliminated to create a favorable environment that would promote neural functional recovery. OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to investigate the effects of the impact of early methylprednisolone-treatment on the sensory and motor function recovery in patients with acute spinal cord injury. DESIGN: A self-control observation. SETTING: Department of Spine Surgery, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China. PARTICIPANTS: Forty-three patients with acute spinal cord injury were admitted to the Department of Spine Surgery, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, between October 2005 and September 2007. These patients were recruited for the present study. The patients comprised 33 males and 10 females, and all met with the inclusive criteria namely, the time between suffering from acute spinal cord injury and receiving treatment was less than or equal to eight hours. METHODS: According to the protocol determined by the State Second Conference of Acute Spinal Cord Injury of USA, all patients received the drop-wise administration of a 30-mg/kg dose of methylprednisolone (H200040339,500mg/bottle, Pharmacia N.V/S.A, Belgium) for 15 minutes within 8 hours post injury. After a 45-minute interval, methylprednisolone was administered at 5.4mg/kg/h for 23 hours. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Prior to and post treatment, acupuncture sense and light touch scoring were performed at 28 dermatomic area key points, including occipital tuberosity and supraclavicular fossa. At the same time, motor scoring of key muscles among 10 pairs of sarcomeres was also performed.RESULTS: All 43 patients participated in the final analysis. There was no significant difference of sensory and motor scores in patients with complete acute spinal cord injury between prior to and post methylprednisolone impact treatment (P>0.05). The motor score was significantly decreased in patients with incomplete acute spinal cord injury post methylprednisolone impact treatment (P