Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Program

The Mayo Clinic Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Program on Mayo Clinic's Minnesota campus has helped thousands of people recover from spinal cord injuries and disorders (SCI/Ds) for more than 40 years. The program team provides comprehensive initial and lifelong spinal cord injury rehabilitation, coordinating your transitions from one level of care to another as your condition improves. We work to meet your ongoing needs, improve your physical and mental functioning, and help you to successfully reenter your community.

Staff in the Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Program cares for more than 250 people with new SCI/Ds each year, on average.

• The team has experience treating people of all ages with nontraumatic and traumatic spinal cord injuries of all levels and severity, including people who have accompanying conditions such as amputation and brain injury.
• The staff also treats people with conditions such as spinal cord tumors, transverse myelitis, Guillain-Barre syndrome, multiple sclerosis, myelopathies, spinal cord infarctions and aneurysms.
• Specialists in the pediatric physical medicine and rehabilitation program treat children with spinal cord injuries.

Your spinal cord injury team includes doctors trained in physical medicine and rehabilitation, doctors trained in mental health (psychologists), clinical nurse specialists, rehabilitation nurses, physical, occupational and recreational therapists, speech therapists, social workers, and other specialists.

You and the SCI/D team will develop a customized rehabilitation treatment plan to meet your needs and achieve your goals. You and your family are the center of the treatment team driving decisions, setting treatment goals, and planning discharge equipment and arrangements. Team members take the time to thoroughly answer your and your family's questions and help you make educated decisions about your care.

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

Specialized spine cord injury rehabilitation care

Mayo Clinic rehabilitation teams offer a full range of spinal cord injury rehabilitation services, from intensive hospital care through your lifetime, both inpatient and outpatient care.

The Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Program offers a wide range of specialty services for both inpatient and outpatient care, including:

• Assistive technology for spinal cord injury
• Brain rehabilitation
• Community reentry and recreation therapy
• Comprehensive patient and family education
• Diaphragm pacing for spinal cord injury
• Functional electrical stimulation for spinal cord injury
• Locomotor training for spinal cord injury
• Neurogenic bladder and bowel management
• Patient and family support and peer mentoring
• Sexuality and fertility management after spinal cord injury
• Spasticity management for spinal cord injury
• Upper extremity functional restoration for spinal cord injury
• Wheelchair and seating evaluation
• Wound care

Inpatient care admission

You may enter the inpatient rehabilitation unit:

• After a consultation with spinal cord injury doctors during hospital-based care
• As a direct admission from another medical center following evaluation by a Mayo Clinic admissions coordinator

Learn about the care offered in the inpatient rehabilitation unit.

Outpatient care admission

You may enter the outpatient spinal cord injury program:

• After a consultation with spinal cord injury doctors during hospital-based care
• After an outpatient evaluation within Mayo Clinic spine care.

Learn about the care offered in the outpatient spinal cord injury care program.

Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, is ranked among the Best Hospitals for rehabilitation by U.S. News & World Report.