ABSTRACT
Clinical care in spinal cord injury has advanced to provide individuals who have sustained spinal cord injury with a nearly normal life span by minimizing the leading causes of death: bladder infections and respiratory infections. While these advances
have caused a dramatic reduction of morbidity and mortality, advances leading to functional restoration of the individual have been considerably less progressive. In point, conventional restoration of upper extremity function still utilizes orthoses or, more recently (since the mid-1960s), tendon transfers. Conventional mobility is focused on the wheelchair or standard orthotics, with some advancement in reciprocal gait orthoses. Conventional bladder management employs external collection devices or indwelling catheters, and defecation uses suppositories with the accompanying hours of time for bowel management. The evolving dissemination of neural prostheses is dramatically changing this environment.
