stars & disk

Bird & Flags

text

ABOUT SPINAL CORD INJURY

• The spinal cord is the main pathway for

passing information between the brain 

and nerves that lead to muscles, skin, 

internal organs, and glands. Injury to the 

spinal cord disturbs movement, sensation, 

and function.

• SCIs are estimated to affect as many as

337,000 Americans, with about 12,500 new 

injuries occurring each year. About 80 percent of people with new injuries are males.

• Nearly half of all SCIs occur in people

between the ages of 16 and 30, meaning 

many patients must live with the effects of 

these injuries for decades.

• VA treats more than 27,000 Veterans

with SCI and related disorders each year, 

making the department the largest health 

care system in the world providing spinal 

cord care.

VA RESEARCH ON SPINAL CORD 

INJURY: OVERVIEW

• VA research focuses on returning motor

and sensory function to Veterans with SCI. 

Researchers are working in the many fields, 

including neural engineering, wheelchairs 

and adaptive technology, treatment of 

SCI complications, new rehabilitation 

methods, and regenerative medicine.

• VA has played a major role in the development of BrainGate, a system that uses 

microelectrodes implanted in the brain to 

pick up neural signals. This system shows 

promise in allowing patients with SCI to 

control robotic devices and computer software systems using their brains.

• VA’s Center on the Medical Consequences

of Spinal Cord Injury is studying ReWalk, 

a wearable robotic exoskeleton that 

provides powered hip and knee motion to 

enable people with SCI to stand upright, 

walk, and turn.

• Researchers at VA’s Cleveland FES Center

completed a 10-year clinical trial to test a 

surgically implanted electrical stimulation 

system in people with SCI. In this program, 

electrodes are implanted in muscles, which 

allow electrically stimulated standing, 

better balance, and exercise. Studies show 

the system is safe and reliable for use.

• VA is part of the Gordon Mansfield Spinal

Cord Injury Translational Collaborative 

Consortium, a project to advance the 

field of regenerative rehabilitation. 

Regenerative rehabilitation aims to 

restore tissue and organ function lost as a 

result of aging, injury, or disease through 

techniques such as cell transplantation.

• The VA Rehabilitation Research and

Development Center for the Restoration 

of Nervous System Function is researching 

molecular and cell-based methods to 

alleviate pain and restore nervous system 

function in Veterans whose nerves have 

been damaged by SCI, multiple sclerosis, 

and diabetes.

• The VA Center in Wheelchairs and

Associated Rehabilitation Engineering

continually improves the mobility and 

function of Veterans with disabilities 

through advancing engineering and 

clinical research in wheelchair design and 

other mobility technologies.

• Researchers modified the VA MOVE!

program to better suit the needs 

of Veterans with SCIs. They created 

pamphlets that include wheelchair fitness 

activities, safety tips for wheelchair users, 

and ideas to help SCI patients perform 

physical activity safely.

SELECTED MILESTONES AND 

MAJOR EVENTS

1988 – Established the Center for 

Neuroscience and Regeneration Research

at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System

1989 – Established the Cleveland FES 

Center to focus on the application of 

electrical currents to generate or suppress 

activity in the nervous system

VA research on 

SPINAL CORD INJURY

Spinal cord injuries (SCIs) impair the brain’s ability to send 

messages to the rest of the body. These injuries can result 

in paralysis, loss of feeling, chronic pain, and other serious 

medical problems below the site of injury.

(Continued on back)

Photo: ©iStock/Kondor83
stars & disk

Bird & Flags

text

VA treats more than 27,000 Veterans with SCI and related 

disorders each year, making the department the largest 

health care system in the world providing spinal cord care.

1994 – Established the Human 

Engineering Research Laboratories in 

Pittsburgh

2002 – Conducted, in rodent models, 

the first transplant of myelin-forming 

cells that act as insulation around spinal cord nerves

2010 – Published a study showing that 

intravenously introduced bone marrow 

stem cells can protect an injured brain 

and spinal cord in rats

2010 – Established the Gordon 

Mansfield VA Spinal Cord Injury 

Collaborative Translational Consortium

2014 – Tested the ReWalk exoskeleton, 

which has received approval for sale 

and distribution from the Food and 

Drug Administration 

2015 – Demonstrated that dendritic 

spine dysgenesis (an abnormality in 

nerve cells) following SCI results in 

spasticity and neuropathic pain

2015 – Contributed to the evidence 

base for VA’s decision to provide

the ReWalk exoskeleton to eligible 

Veterans who will benefit from the new 

technology

RECENT STUDIES: SELECTED 

HIGHLIGHTS

• Researchers at the VA Health Services Research and Development Center 

of Innovation on Disability and 

Rehabilitation Research and other VA 

centers found that vocational training that engaged Veterans with SCI in 

job seeking and provided on-the-job 

support was more effective at helping 

Veterans find jobs than general vocational counseling that only involved job 

preparation. (Topics in Spinal Cord Injury 

Rehabilitation, Feb. 6, 2015)

• Evidence is lacking to support the 

benefits of upper-limb resistance 

circuit training on body composition 

in people with SCI, according to 

researchers at the Hunter Holmes 

McGuire VA Medical Center and their 

colleagues. Further studies are needed 

to explore the effects of upper-body 

exercise on body composition after SCI. 

(Aging and Disease, Aug. 1, 2015)

• Neuropathic pain, or pain caused 

by damage to the nervous system, 

is a difficult-to-treat effect of SCI. 

Researchers from the VA Connecticut 

Healthcare System and Yale University School of Medicine have identified 

through a review of animal-studies literature that changes in the dendritic spine 

structure are linked to neuropathic pain. 

Identifying specific causes of neuropathic pain in SCI may lead to more effective 

and long-lasting therapies. (Neuroscience 

Letters, Aug. 5, 2015)

• A patient with incomplete locked-in 

syndrome was able to communicate 

face-to-face with VA and affiliated 

researchers using text-to-speech conversion and remotely with an Internet 

chat application through the BrainGate 

Interface System. This shows that intracortical brain-computer interfaces may 

be viable to help people with motor 

impairment communicate. (Neurorehabilitation & Neural Repair, May 28, 2015)

• A Dingell VA Medical Center and 

Wayne State University study found 

that people with SCI typically have 

moderate to severe sleep-disordered 

breathing. Poor sleep quality is 

common in people with SCI, and better 

screening and treatment methods for 

sleep-disordered breathing need to be 

developed. (Spinal Cord, Dec. 16, 2014)

For more information on VA studies 

on spinal cord injury and other key 

topics relating to Veterans’ health, 

please visit 

www.research.va.gov/topics

SPINAL CORD INJURY

Updated September 2016 • For a digital version of this fact sheet with active links to sources, visit www.research.va.gov/topics