Emerging Evidence for Intrathecal Management of Neuropathic Pain Following Spinal Cord Injury

Spinal cord injury (SCI) often leads to chronic neuropathic pain that's hard to treat with standard methods. Scientists are exploring new ways to manage this pain by delivering drugs directly into the spinal fluid using intrathecal drug delivery (IDD). Recent research is focused on understanding how SCI causes changes in the nervous system, like increased excitability, glial dysregulation, and inflammation. These insights help researchers explore treatments like neuromodulation and IDD. This review looks at the latest evidence for IDD, including new medications, in both animal and human studies. It aims to provide a comprehensive overview of how IDD can help manage neuropathic pain after SCI.

• 1
  Neuropathic pain after SCI involves complex mechanisms including neuronal excitability, glial dysregulation, and chronic inflammation.
• 2
  Intrathecal drug delivery (IDD) can effectively target pain pathways in the spinal cord, but current treatments mainly address pain transmission rather than underlying causes.
• 3
  Emerging therapies like immunomodulators, stem-cell-based treatments, and gene therapies show promise for treating chronic pain after SCI by targeting the underlying pathogenesis.