Spinal cord
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Review Multicenter Study
Epidemiology of traumatic spinal cord injury: trends and future implications.
Review supplemented by inception cohort. ⋯ Within the prevalent population, the percentage of elderly persons will not increase meaningfully until the high mortality rates observed among older persons significantly improve. Those who reach older ages will typically have incomplete and/or lower level injuries, and will have relatively high degrees of independence and overall good health.
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To identify technological advances and that are likely to have a great impact on the quality of life and participation in individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI). ⋯ Although technology advances are exciting, a large challenge for the research community will be how to effectively apply and deploy this technology. Advances occurring in the next 10 years that reduce cost of technology may be more important to the population with SCI than brand new technologies. Social context is everything. As a research community we must advocate for better systems of care. Advocating now for better care will lead to a world in 2020 that is ready to adopt new technologies that are truly transformative.
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This paper reviews the literature pertaining to the employment of people who experience spinal cord injury (SCI) in the United States and recommending future research. ⋯ Employment is important for people with SCI and valued in society. The literature reviewed indicates that researchers understand the work demands for people with SCI and may help to identify suitable supports, training and job opportunities. There remains a need for research focus on understanding future employment demands, necessary work skills, differing work environments and methods for increasing and preserving employment.
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Although the emphasis in clinical spinal cord injury (SCI) research has been directed towards the evaluation of clinical assessments (standards in neurological examination) and the appreciation of outcome measures (that is, extent and pattern of clinical recovery from SCI), the underlying neurological mechanisms for recovery from SCI are not well documented in humans. However, to improve the translational research, a meaningful preclinical-clinical dialogue is required, with an appreciation for both fundamental neural mechanisms and what makes human SCI unique. This holds true both for potential interventions in rehabilitation and novel drug or cell-based treatment approaches in acute SCI. ⋯ The preclinical-clinical dialogue should be encouraged as a venue to improve the appreciation of discoveries in basic research, and to power valid discoveries towards a meaningful translation into advanced treatments downstream. Similarly, the upstream identification of appropriate clinical targets that take into account clinical constraints depends on reliable and advanced clinical information being provided to preclinical investigators.