Spinal Cord Injury in the MENA Region: Challenges and Opportunities Ahead

At the 19th ISPRM World Congress in Marrakesh, Prof. Ali Otom (Jordan) delivered an essential keynote shedding light on the often-overlooked realities of spinal cord injury (SCI) across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. His address offered both a clear assessment of current challenges and an urgent call for collective action.

With over 20 countries and more than 500 million people, the MENA region faces significant disparities in SCI care. As Prof. Otom emphasized, people living with spinal cord injury encounter multiple barriers that deeply affect their access to rehabilitation and long-term outcomes.

“People with spinal cord injury are facing a lot of barriers. The most important one is the inadequate infrastructure to health care services… financial constraints… and the lack of well-trained staff and multidisciplinary teams.”

The shortage of specialized rehabilitation centers and dedicated SCI units remains a central obstacle. Equally concerning is the scarcity of trained professionals able to deliver coordinated, multidisciplinary care — a key foundation of effective SCI management.

Alongside clinical barriers, Prof. Otom highlighted a major structural challenge: the lack of regional collaboration and reliable data.

“We don’t know our data. We have no enough studies and collaboration to know what’s the reality in the region and how we can cooperate together.”

Without shared information, it remains difficult to understand the prevalence of SCI, track outcomes, or design responsive rehabilitation systems. Strengthening research networks is therefore essential for progress.

Prof. Otom described his keynote as an opportunity to bring these issues to the center of discussion and to imagine concrete next steps:

“This was an opportunity to put all the challenges and to see in the future what we can do together to improve the service of rehabilitation in general and spinal cord injury in particular.”

His message at ISPRM25 was clear: addressing SCI in the MENA region requires investment, education, regional cooperation, and a unified vision. By engaging clinicians, researchers, health systems, and policymakers, the pathways toward equitable, high-quality rehabilitation can become achievable realities.