Spinal cord injury (SCI), as one of the intractable diseases in clinical medicine, is afflicting thousands of human beings, and the pathological changes after the injury have been a hot spot for exploration in clinical medicine. With the development of new treatments, the survival rate of patients has shown an increasing trend; however, the inflammatory response after the injury has not yet been effectively controlled. SCI is divided into primary injury and secondary injury according to the time of injury and pathophysiology changes. Primary injury occurs immediately and the damage to the injury site is irreversible, however, secondary injury occurs after primary injury and involves pathological changes at the cellular and molecular levels, which are reversible. Thus, the inflammatory response from secondary injuries has become the main research direction. In recent years, a complex pathophysiological mechanism has gradually been unveiled, this has been followed by an upgrade of treatment methods. This article provides a brief description of the mechanisms of the inflammatory response after SCI and the mainstream treatment modalities. Also, neuroprotective agents and nerve regeneration agent agents are commonly used in the treatment of SCI, in the end of this paper, we will review the therapeutic mechanism and classification of these agents.
Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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