Dear Spinal Cord Reader,

We, at the editorial office of Spinal Cord in Antwerp, hope you had a nice holiday. In this second issue of SC in its 50th year we have included some very interesting papers.

J Silver's manuscript on George Riddoch highlights an important period of the last century during which the basics of SC comprehensive management as we know it today were formed. Riddoch′s research on the patho-physiology, treatment and the setting up of spinal injury units, in World Wars I and II, was outstanding. His finding, appointing and supervising of Ludwig Guttmann at the National Spinal Injury′s Centre UK is well described.

Müller et al. reviewed the literature on social support, and found it was associated with better health and functioning in people with SCI. But, the full range of social skills has not yet been studied in individuals with SCI, and, the role of social skills in relation to social support, health and functioning remains unclear. More understanding of social skills and social support in SCI is needed to facilitate the development of targeted and effective interventions to enhance functioning of the SCI individual.

Watwe et al. propose available evidence and treatment pathways for acute overdose and for withdrawal states of Intrathecal Baclofen (ITB) pump delivery for intractable spasticity.

Knutsdottir et al. assessed epidemiological data of SCI in Iceland from 1975 to 2009 and found a significant increase of traumatic causes in 2005-2009, especially in sport/leisure accidents and incomplete cervical lesions due to falls among elderly. Prevention strategies need to focus on these risk groups and on seatbelt use.

Findikoglu et al. provide for the first time evidence that cartilage destruction is associated with elevated urinary collagen type-II (CTX-II) levels in non-ambulating or non-functional ambulating SCI patients. It may be important to initiate therapeutic programs as soon as possible after SCI to prevent such cartilage atrophy.

Moghaddam et al. found in a prospective, observational study of SCI individuals with chronic pressure ulcers highly valuable efficacy of medical honey in wound management and infection control.

Kennedy et al. provide further evidence for the link between appraisals, coping and subsequent adjustment to injury. Wong et al. found resources allocated to nutritional care to be very limited, suggesting that improvement is needed to recognize and treat malnutrition in SCI centres in the UK and Ireland. Harvey et al. found individuals with SCI reasonably accurate at self-reporting S4-5 sensory and motor function. Yang et al. conclude, from a placebo controlled study, that oral lithium carbonate did not change the neurological outcome but could be explored for treatment of neuropathic pain in chronic SCI. Tan and New examine the rehabilitation outcomes for patients with SC lesion due to tumor, with a focus on the impact of pain on disability and length of stay.

Several other very interesting papers in this issue: on muscle/bone association (Totosy de Zepetnek et al.), optimal method for proteinuria detection (Alshayeb et al.), knowledge of pressure ulcer prevention and management amongst nurses and rehabilitation registrars (Gupta et al.), home-based functional electrical stimulation lower extremities cycling (Dolbow et al.).

Enjoy reading.