Clinical neurorestorative progress in traumatic brain injury

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of death and disability from trauma to the central nervous system. Besides the surgical interventions and symptomatic management, the conventional therapies for TBI and its sequelae are still limited. Recently emerging evidence suggests that some neurorestorative treatments appear to have a potential therapeutic role for TBI and improving the patient's quality of life. The current clinical neurorestorative strategies available in TBI include pharmacological treatments (recombinant human interleukin-1 receptor antagonist, amantadine, lithium, and valproate), the neuromodulation treatments (repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, transcranial direct current stimulation, and low-level laser therapy), cell transplantation (bone marrow stromal cells and umbilical cord stromal cells), and combined neurorehabilitation. In this review, we summarize the recent clinical neurorestorative progress in the management of neurodegeneration as well as cognitive and motor deficits after TBI; indeed further clinical trials are required to provide more robust evidence.