In recent years, a variety of aggressive physical rehabilitation programs have emerged that seem to restore significant function for many people after spinal cord injury (SCI), even years after injury. This article discusses several of the programs, as well as key issues surrounding their use.

Increasingly, such aggressive rehabilitation is being used to maximize restored function after cell-transplantation or other innovative surgeries that are surfacing throughout the world, including those discussed in previous articles. Often videos are produced to document improvement, and given the impressive nature of the physical activities that could be done after but not before surgery, it is assumed that the new-found abilities prove the intervention’s efficacy.

 FES has been around for a long time. It was first demonstrated by Galvani in the16th century and has been the subject of research in spinal cord injury since the 1960s. As the name implies the focus of most of the research has been directed at creating a function such as walking; there has been relatively little work in using FES to improve muscle bulk and health through exercise.

 Paid is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage. In general, people can experience acute and chronic pain. Most people experience acute pain when they have a disease or injury to the body. It usually begins suddenly and acts as a danger signal telling you that something is wrong and that you need help. Chronic pain is like acute pain in that it can start suddenly. However, chronic pain differs because it can build up over time and continue long after the body heals.