Pharmacologic and Cell-Based Therapies for Acute Spinal Cord Injury

This article provides a review of current pharmacologic and cell-based modalities used for the management of acute spinal cord injury (SCI). The literature search was focused on clinical trials performed in the United States and Canada. Despite the significant advance in research, there is no definitive treatment option for SCI. Instead, existing pharmacologic and cell-based modalities provide only minimal neurologic recovery benefits. This can be attributed to the complex pathophysiology of SCI and spinal cord regeneration. Further research is imperative to better understand these mechanisms and discover definitive treatment modalities.