Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Program in Minnesota

Overview

Locomotor training on a Lokomat system

For more than 40 years, the Mayo Clinic Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Program has helped thousands of patients recover from spinal cord injuries. The program provides initial and lifelong spinal cord injury rehabilitation, coordinating transitions from one level of care to another as the patient's condition improves. Its goal is to help patients maximize their physical and mental functioning, level of wellness and quality of life to successfully re-enter their communities.

Spinal cord injury rehabilitation at Mayo begins in the Intensive Care Unit, and transitions through the inpatient rehabilitation unit to outpatient programs and lifelong care. Mayo specialists take the time to thoroughly answer the patient's and family's questions and to develop a customized rehabilitation treatment plan as a team to meet each patient's needs.

The treatment team is led by doctors specializing in spinal cord rehabilitation medicine and includes nurses, psychologists, therapists, social workers and other specialists, as needed. Patients and families are considered treatment team members, informed and involved in decision making.

Learn more about spinal cord injury rehabilitation treatment at Mayo Clinic:

• Inpatient care
• Outpatient rehabilitation

The Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Program cares for about 200 people with new spinal cord injuries each year. The team is experienced in treating patients of all ages with non-traumatic and traumatic spinal cord injuries of all levels and severity, including those who are ventilator-dependent or have an accompanying brain injury. Mayo Clinic also treats patients with disorders such as spinal cord tumors, transverse myelitis, Guillain-Barré syndrome, multiple sclerosis, myelopathies, spinal cord infarctions and aneurysms.

The Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Program is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF).