The tasks of the study were as follows: to investigate histological findings of the spinal cord two hours after a trauma; to investigate the influence of the narrowing of spinal canal on the histological changes development of the injured spinal cord; to estimate the influence of the spinal cord surgical decompression performed within twenty hours after the cervical spine trauma on its clinical signs of the changes of the injury; to determinate the relationship between the duration of the cervical spinal cord compression and its clinical signs of changes of the injury. The main results: The hemorrhages in the gray matter and within the perivascular spaces of the spinal cord and beneath it dura mater, blood stasis in the vessels of the spinal cord gray matter and the thrombosis of the superficial spinal cord vessels, ischemic neurons were established in axial sections of the spinal cord two hours after the experimental trauma. The degree of pericellular edema established in axial sections of the spinal cord stained with hematoxylin and eosin by light microscopy two hours after the experimental trauma was more severe for the laboratory animals which underwent reduction of vertical diameter of the spinal canal by 50 % followed by spinal cord compression. The cervical spinal cord decompression performed within twenty four hours after trauma provided significant neurologic recovery twelve months after surgical intervention. The decompression of the injured spinal cord manifested... [to full text]