Chronic spinal cord injury: management of patients in acute hospital settings.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a lifelong condition affecting over 40,000 people in the UK. When an individual with established SCI is admitted to hospital for a procedure or because of illness, hospital teams need to manage both the acute condition and the spinal cord injury. These guidelines aim to assist in their assessment and management to avoid the common problems of hospital-acquired morbidity in this potentially vulnerable group of people. Key steps are: gaining an understanding of the common patho-physiological consequences of SCI; listening to the person and their family who are often expert in managing the condition; and maintaining close contact with the individual's regular team/specialist spinal cord injury centre.