脊髓損傷治療新觀－－神經再生術

The New Therapy of Spinal Cord Injury - The Development of Nerve Degenration

脊髓神經因為沒有再生功能，一旦脊髓損傷造成的神經傷害，即失去原有的神經功能，可能造成終身的身體殘障，為克服神經傷害後的生理限制，有大批的神經生理研究學者及臨床醫療人員投進神經再生的行列中，雖然到目前尚無臨床的研究報告，但由動物實驗可以證明神經再生的可能性。台北榮總自1999開始臨床實驗，並於2002年成立神經再生病房，投入了大批的醫療設備及人力，跨出了神經再生的重要一大步。目前雖有不少神經功能改善的個案，但仍需要更多的臨床研究證明它的有效性。神經再生工程是一條漫長的路，需要各種醫療專業人員共同努力與合作，方能突破人類的另一個大挑戰，早日看到它開花結果。

After a spinal-cord injury, severed nerve fibers face a thicket of obstacles as they try to regenerate. But the spinal nerve doesn?t have regenerative function, once the nerve is harmed by a spinal cord injury, it loses its original function. It could cause a whole life body deficiency. To overcome physiological restrictions, there are large number of neurophysiological researchers and clinical medical personnel joining neural regeneration groups. Although there is no clinical research reports so far, it has been proved that the possibility of neural regeneration occurs through animal experiments. Taipei Veterans General Hospital started clinical experiments in 1999 and established a neural regeneration center in 2002. A large number of medical equipment and personnel have been invested and great strides have been made in neural regeneration. Even if there are many cases of neural function improvement presently, it still needs more clinical research to prove its effectiveness. Neural regeneration engineering faces a long road; it needs exertion and cooperation from various medical professionals to break through many human challenges to yield positive results. Yet, looking further into the future, we can perhaps allow ourselves to be a bit more optimistic.