• M D Wiles, I Benson, L Edwards, R Miller, F Tait, and A Wynn-Hebden.
• Academic Department of Anaesthesia and Peri-operative Medicine, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Sheffield, UK.
• Anaesthesia. 2024 Feb 1; 79 (2): 193202193-202.

AbstractEach year approximately one million people suffer spinal cord injury, which has significant physical, psychosocial and economic impacts on patients and their families. Spinal cord rehabilitation centres are a well-established part of the care pathway for patients with spinal cord injury and facilitate improvements in functional independence and reductions in healthcare costs. Within the UK, however, there are a limited number of spinal cord injury centres, which delays admission. Patients and their families often perceive that they are not receiving specialist care while being treated in non-specialist units. This review aimed to provide clinicians who work in non-specialist spinal injury centres with a summary of contemporary studies relevant to the critical care management of patients with cervical spinal cord injury. We undertook a targeted literature review including guidelines, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, clinical trials and randomised controlled trials published in English between 1 June 2017 and 1 June 2023. Studies involving key clinical management strategies published before this time, but which have not been updated or repeated, were also included. We then summarised the key management themes: acute critical care management approaches (including ventilation strategies, blood pressure management and tracheostomy insertion); respiratory weaning techniques; management of pain and autonomic dysreflexia; and rehabilitation.© 2023 The Authors. Anaesthesia published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Association of Anaesthetists.

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