Hypoxic locomotor rehabilitation for incomplete spinal cord injury Not an oxymoron

Neurorehabilitation is experiencing a paradigm shift toward treatments that are both effective and efficient, driven by increasing demands upon clinical practice and the staggering burden of health care expenditures. The impetus is toward finding ways to maximize the potential for recovery by targeting networks spared by the lesion. Residual networks can undergo reorganization with recovery, involving plasticity or improved efficiency at the level of preexisting synapses and sprouting from surviving fibers for creation of new circuits.(1) Capitalizing on the potential for plasticity and employing methods that can augment this potential are the 2 driving themes in current rehabilitation research. In this issue of Neurology (R), Hayes et al.(2) present a study that sought to address both.