A therapy to treat injuries to the central nervous system is, to date, a major clinical challenge. The devastating functional consequences they cause in patients have encouraged many scientists to searchm in aimal models, for a repair strategy that could, in the future, be applied to humans. To highlight the current understanding of traumatic spinal cord injury, we provide information regarding state-of-the-art care for the acute spinal cord injured model, and explore future treatments aimed at neural preservation and reconstruction. This article also reviews recent phase I clinical trials in neural and nonneural cell transplantation, stressing that the transition from basic science to clinical applications.