A Complete Review of Spinal Cord Injury with a Focus in Engineering Techniques in Spinal Cord Injury Research

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a crippling neurological disorder that yields physical, behavioral, social, and financial consequences. Globally, thousands of people suffer from SCI-inducing accidents every year. Despite SCI being studied for nearly 1700 years, research progress has led largely to palliative instead of curative care. Over the previous few decades, however, researchers have made remarkable progress in understanding the pathophysiology of SCI, therefore informing what clinical interventions may be made to alleviate the consequences of SCI. Current interventions involve intravenous methylprednisolone, surgical treatments to re-align and decompress the spine, and rehabilitation. Current experimental treatments have shown promise in delivering lower risk solutions, especially with a recent surge of computational and engineering techniques in medicine. This review offers a thorough and up-to-date account of SCI research and modern, as well as potential, clinical treatments. This review begins with an overview of spinal cord anatomy, clinical definitions, SCI pathophysiology, and modern clinical options for SCI and potential risks associated. Lastly, this review covers engineering therapeutic advancements that may further shift current clinical options for SCI to the curative side of care.