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Spinal cord injuries will not disappear, but the incidence can be reduced. A reduction of up to 50% of spinal cord injury cases is, in the opinion of Menzies' seminar participants, practical and possible but will only occur if the subject is accepted as a major challenge in the surgical world. Great advances in spinal cord injury care were made by surgeons. Prevention is a programme already targeted in other surgical areas. As a multidisciplinary medical and surgical area, spinal cord injury prevention now needs the effective activity of groups of health professionals. Primary prevention must therefore be a target for surgical communities. Surgeons should be among the leaders in the field ensuring good overall management of prevention programmes.

In the last decade, by application of detailed methods of care, the previously accepted complications of urinary infection, pressure sores and motor skeletal problems of contractures and spasm, have largely been eliminated from the clinical picture of patients with spinal paralysis. Many professionals in medicine have contributed to these advances. Long-term or extended care in the area of tetraplegia and paraplegia need further stimulation, with continued application of all those methods used in acute rehabilitation in properly organized spinal units.