Abstract: Muscle spasticity is one of the common complications in the paraplegic patients who suffer from spinal cord injury (SCI). Spasticity can result in limbs pain, joint contracture and malformation, then affects walking and the capability of keeping the posture in wheelchairs. Moreover, spasticity can increase the incidence rate of heterotopic ossification and fracture and seriously affects patients' daily life and rehabilitation therapy accordingly. There are many kinds of treatments aimed at spasticity at present, such as drug, exercise therapy, physiotherapy, nerve block treatment, operation treatment, and so on. However, single treatment doesn't achieve good effect. So it is common that many kinds of treatments are combined to treat spasticity. This article simply introduces the mechanism, symptom and evaluation of the muscle spasticity after SCI and discusses in full the treatment of the muscle spasticity by reviewing recent literatures.

Key words: spinal cord injury (SCI), spasticity, mechanism, treatment, review