BACKGROUND: Recently, three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of the corticospinal tract has been attempted in treatment for corticospinal tract injury. However, results remain unsatisfactory. OBJECTIVE: This manuscript reviews technique progress and problems in 3D reconstruction of rat spinal tracts, as well as 3D reconstruction of human spinal tracts. RETRIEVAL STRATEGY: Using the keywords rat, spinal tracts, three-dimensional reconstruction, the PubMed database was searched for English articles pertaining to 3D reconstruction of the rat spinal tract that were published between January 1996 and January 2007. Meanwhile, the above-mentioned keywords in Chinese were also used to search the CNKI database for articles that were published between January 1999 and January 2007. Inclusion criteria: manuscripts that addressed the study of 3D reconstruction of the rat spinal tract and review articles. Exclusion criteria: old and repetitive articles. All manuscripts were initially evaluated, followed by extensive review.LITERATURE EVALUATION: A total of 154 related manuscripts were collected; a total of 27 were evaluated and reviewed for the present review. One manuscript assessed rat behavioral functions, four were experimental reports addressing micro-3D reconstruction techniques, ten were experiment reports about image analysis of rat corticospinal tracts, and twelve were experiment articles related to image processing of serial spinal cord sections. DATA SYNTHESIS: Rat spinal cord sections were obtained through section staining or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques, specifically localizing the inner tracts. Software was used to construct 3D reconstruction from the serial sections to observe and analyze rat spinal cord structures. The rat spinal cord is small, with complicated inner tracts, which makes accurate 3D reconstruction difficult.CONCLUSION: The assembly of 3D reconstructions from rat spinal cord serial sections and the visualization of the inner tracts are imperative for studying rat spinal cord diseases.