a brief review on traumatic spinal cord injury

a brief review on traumatic spinal cord injury
pardis abolghasemi,^1,* benyamin khatamsaz,²
1. mohammad rasolollah research institute
2. mohammad rasolollah research institute
Introduction: Spinal cord injury is a devastating neurological disorder with disastrous consequences for physical, social and vocational well-being of patients. over the past decades an enormous advancement has been made in our understandings of its pathophysiology and secondary mechanism. the insight given by the past researches resulted in better quality of life in patients suffering from SCI however there is still no effective therapy available and current treatment options includes the use of high dose methylprednisolone ,surgical interventions to stabilize and decompress the spinal cord rehabilitative care
Methods: in this review we outline recent advances in our understanding of the pathophysiology of SCI and some of the important consequences in addition to highlighting modern imaging tools which assist us in better evaluation of location and extent of damage. finally, we focus on novel combinatory therapeutic approaches and we discuss the efficacy of cell therapy, pharmacological interventions and tissue engineering as the main three novel procedures in SCI treatment
Results: The result of this review exemplified the feasibility of three novel approaches.. In cell therapy condition media derived from cells are considered as an alternative to cell therapy due to their more viability and less immune response stimulation compared to stem cells.in terms of anti-inflammatory drug therapy in SCI enhancement it is important to focus not only on histological healing but also on the potential of these drugs in sensory and motor function improvement.Finally regarding Tissue engineering as a good co-candidate in combined therapy in SCI there is still an urgent need for a suitable biomaterial with specific properties to be introduced in this area.
Conclusion: Traumatic spinal cord injury represents a complex pathophysiology which is in association with substantial cost and reduction in life quality. Fortunately, the care for patients have improved recently (surgical method and supportive treatment) resulting in restored function and lower pain however newer concepts claims that combinatory therapies will show better outcome compared to individual therapies therefore it is expected that through these progress SCI will be eventually repairable.
Keywords: traumatic spinal cord injury, pathophysiology, novel therapeutic approaches