Abstract
Current conventions concerning the neurologic examination and methods of classifying patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) were questioned when inconsistencies among examiners were noted. Five test cases were given to 15 experts in the field of SCI and 16 clinicians attending a national meeting on SCI. The results were surprisingly inconsistent and revealed areas that were clearly not held in agreement by all. Areas of greatest concern proved to be specific dermatomal areas, differentiation between Frankel categories C and D, use of the muscle grading system to discern a motor level, use of the motor index score when certain muscles could not be examined, and finally the effect of an additional neurologic injury that confused proper SCI classification.