Dear Spinal Cord reader

You may have noticed that, in the last issue, the new editorial board has been presented. This change was made after ample consultation. It is normal that at regular intervals an important body such as an editorial board is updated in order to guarantee an efficient and high-quality review process. All board members have taken the engagement to help, in a very active way, to further improve the review process and help shorten the time before final acceptance. We also decided to create an emeritus board with senior ISCOS members who continue to provide substantial help in reviewing and advising. Many thanks to all for their willingness to be on the board and their dedication to Spinal Cord.

This month's issue contains a systematic review by Wilt et al. on the effectiveness and adverse effects of botulinum toxin (BTX) in urinary incontinence (UI) owing to detrusor overactivity (DO). Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published in English before November 2006 were included if they enrolled subjects with UI caused by DO and reported incontinence outcomes. The use of BTX has become a hot topic in scientific literature in many domains. The industry has set up a large number of sponsored trials that help us understand more and more about when and how to use it. On PubMed almost 300 reports can be found of which 10 manuscripts were published in the first period of 2007. The use of BTX has become standardized practice rather quickly in many centres. Spinal Cord was one of the first to publish the possible side effects, such as temporary generalized muscular weakness (Spinal Cord 2002; 40: 599–600) and a more general review on this topic (Spinal Cord 2005; 43: 397–399). In this age of very fast clinical use of new techniques and drugs, it is important to give full attention to the less favourable effects. But complications do seem to be rare with BTX and are mentioned only occasionally in subsequent reports. You can read the conclusion in the review published in this issue.

Another urological contribution by Bonsan Lee et al. determined whether methenamine hippurate or cranberry tablets prevent urinary tract infections in people with neuropathic bladder following spinal cord injury (SCI) in a double-blind factorial-design RCT. Cranberry has seen a particularly growing interest, as proven by more than 30 articles in PubMed since the beginning of this year. You can read the results in a very large sample size study with good follow-up in Spinal Cord. This manuscript received the Spinal Cord Prize 2007.

Hagenbach et al. assessed the efficacy and side effects of oral D9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and rectal THC-hemisuccinate for the treatment of spasticity in SCI patients.

Frisbie tested the reported correlation of hypotension, polydipsia and hyponatraemia with severe SCI and has presented some treatment modalities.

Beraldo et al. studied maximal static mouth respiratory pressures in patients with spinal cord lesions and the correlation with the motor level of injury.

Four interesting case reports can also be found in this issue.

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of active communication between authors, readers and the editorial office. The invitation to contact us does seem to get more and more response, measured by the number of emails we receive.

Enjoy reading this issue.