Commentary on a Spinal Cord Injury

Haddad Dhall^*
*Correspondence: Haddad Dhall, Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, Email:

Description

Damage to the spinal cord can occur in many ways, although the most common cause is due to external trauma. It is one of the most serious types of physical trauma which affect a lasting and significant impact on most aspects of daily life. The spine contains many nerves which extend from the brain’s base down the back ending close to the buttocks. The spinal cord works as a mediating part that sends a message from the brain to all parts of the body and sends messages back from the body to the brain. If the spinal cord suffers from any injury, some or all of these impulses may not be able to send any information to all other body parts, this may results in a complete or total loss of sensation and mobility below the injury. As the neck and spinal cord are very near to each other, if any injury happen to spinal cord there is a huge chance of getting paralysis throughout a larger part of the body than one in the lower back area. While not nearly as going, non-traumatic injury to the spinal cord is a possibility from cause’s correspondent as growths, blood loss, or stenosis. Spinal cord injuries tend to affect more in men compared to women and the maturity of people who sustain a spinal cord injury are between the periods of 16 and 30 due to the increased probability of unhealthy and risky behavior. The body loses many important functions if an injury happens to nerves i.e., can’t communicate with the brain. There are four types of Spinal cord injuries, cervical injury, thoracic injury, lumbar injury, and sacral injury. Motor vehicle accidents are the major cause of this spinal cord injury. Sudden falls, acts of violence, and sports injuries may also affect the injury to the spine. This type of injury happens to the age group of 16-30 years old among them 80% of injuries happen to men compared to women.

Symptoms of a spinal cord injury include walking and breathing problems, reduces heart rate, sensations, reflexes, unnatural positioning of the head, muscle movement, loss of control of the bowels or bladders, inability to move legs and arms, unconsciousness, feelings of spreading numbness or tingling in the extremities, pain, and stiffness in the back or area near to the neck. All these spinal cord injury symptoms depend on the type of complete or incomplete damage near the affected location of the body part. A complete spinal cord injury produces total loss of all motor and sensory functions below the level of injury. Nearly 50% of all SCI’s are complete injuries i.e., both sides of the body are equally affected. Loss of function is most caused by a contusion or bruise to the spinal cord or by compromise of blood flow to the injured part of the spinal cord. In an incomplete SCI, some function remains below the primary level of the injury. A person with an incomplete injury can be able to move arms and legs more than the other or may have more functioning on one side of the body than the other.

You may need emergency surgery or treatment for a spinal cord injury if you notice any of these issue after an injury, difficulty in breathing, severe pain or pressure in the neck or back, Loss of bladder or bowel control, unusual lumps along the spine, weakness in the arms and or legs, and decreased sensation in the arms and or legs. Surgery can also address spinal cord damage from broken bones, blood clots and damaged tissue. The emergency medication should be given within eight hours after the injury occurs.