Current and future medical therapeutic strategies for the functional repair of spinal cord injury

Table 5 Timing of surgery and nonsurgical treatment options of spinal cord injury including pharmacological and cellular therapy

Timing of surgery

Early surgical intervention is safe and feasible which can improve clinical and neurological outcomes and reduce health care costs

Early surgical intervention helps minimize the secondary damage caused by compression of the spinal cord after trauma

Pharmacological and cellular therapy

There is still no accepted pharmacological treatment protocol in SCI

Methylprednisolone is the accepted agent used in SCI, however, some criticism has been reported by some authors. It might be used in young patients without accompanying diseases such as diabetes mellitus

Cellular treatment studies are continuing

SCI: Spinal cord injury.