Overview of ethical issues for conducting neuroprotective clinical trials in patients with spinal cord injury

Animals have been used in medical and biological researches worldwide for long time. Almost all of these studies are published with the hope of clinical application. However, there are meticulous criteria considering results of animal studies in clinical trials of human beings. In recent years, the number of experimental research in animal models of spinal cord injury has been growing. However, there is no warranty for translation of experimental studies into clinical practice. Certain protocols should be considered in all phases of conducting clinical trials such as study design, data gathering, and analysis. In this article, we comprehensively review different aspects of ethical issues in translating results of animal studies into clinical application, especially in patients with spinal cord injury.