How do neurologists repair nerve damage of the spinal cord?

How do neurologists repair nerve damage of the spinal cord?

Les Weiner (Former Chair of the Department of Neurology, University of Southern California) gives expert video advice on: How do neurologists repair nerve damage of the brain?; Why are some spinal cord injuries more serious than others?; Is there anything I can do to prevent or decrease my chances of developing a neurological disorder? and more...

If you damage a nerve it doesn't function or that it functions poorly. So, if I injured my elbow, I might get some numbness in my hand from that nerve. It may be permanent or it may not be. If it is a severe injury, the myelin breaks down - which is the covering, the insulation of the nerve - that can be be repaired. But if the nerve itself, which is the axon, gets injured that doesn't always repair itself. That usually means that you have to repair that in the spinal cord because that's where all the apparatus is for that nerve. So what you want to do is prevent axonal damage. The axonal damage may take months and months to repair itself. It may eventually repair itself if it's not too bad, but again, if it's cut it won't repair itself. So you would have to do something to that nerve to bridge that cut. Those kinds of things are happening, where you are taking something from one place and you put it into another place to replace it.