Remarkable advancements have been made in understanding the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and other neurological disease; in our depth of understanding neurorestorative mechanisms such as anti-inflammatory processes, immune regulation, neuromodulation, neovascularization/neural repair, and neuroprotection; and in clinical neurorestorative treatments. Multiple types of cell therapies have been reported, with some positive outcomes. Diverse forms of neurostimulation and neuromodulation as well as brain–computer interfaces have shown good therapeutic outcomes in clinical applications. Further, therapeutic neurorestorative surgery and pharmaceutic therapy have been very impressive. These fundamental achievements are helpful for understanding the pathogenesis of neurological diseases and the mechanisms of neurorestoration. Patients with neurological impairments have benefited from therapeutic progress, but some of these therapies still require confirmation in higher-level randomized clinical trials.

Restoring neurological dysfunctions is challenging in patients with the sequels of vertebral and spinal cord lesions. Current guidelines focus on treating the early stage of vertebral and spinal cord lesions, such as tethered cord syndrome, syringomyelia, spinal degenerative diseases, spinal infection, ankylosing spondylitis, myelitis, vertebral and spinal cord vascular malformations, and others, whereas the treatments of the sequels of those lesions have received limited attention. Restoring neurological dysfunctions and damaged structures caused by these lesions could improve patient quality of life. The Chinese Association of Neurorestoratology (Preparatory) and the China Committee of International Association of Neurorestoratology therefore proposed and approved this guideline providing the restorative therapeutic rules and references for physicians to treat patients with neurological dysfunction of sequels from vertebral and spinal cord lesions.