The paraplegic patient often has been dismissed as one of the unfortunate by-products of war or accident and thereby often has been the victim of neglect and ignorance. The large number of persons with paraplegia resulting from World War II injuries necessitated establishment of paraplegia centers where patients were rehabilitated as fully as possible. It soon became evident that the primary problems in these long-term patients were directly related to metabolic changes caused by their condition. Many of these changes had been noted in paraplegic patients in civilian life, but the small opportunity for study of large groups of patients often prevented the development of thought and investigation of these problems. In recent years there has been widespread reemphasis and realization of the importance of metabolism and its changes. It has been found that many of the metabolic changes heretofore apparently limited to the paraplegic person are nonspecific changes that