Spinal cord injury

From ArticleWorld

A spinal cord injury is any trauma or illness that damages the ability of the spinal cord to send appropriate nerve signals to the body. The injury can be traumatic or due to certain illnesses affecting the nerves. The symptoms resulting from spinal cord injury depend on several factors, including the level of injury and the extent of spinal cord injured.

Causes

Spinal cord trauma is the most common type of injury noted. In the U.S., around 11,000 spinal cord injuries occur each year. Sadly, 78% of all injuries occur in young men between the ages of 16-30 and are due to motor vehicle accidents, violence or falls. Overall, traumas such as falls, diving accidents, motor vehicle accidents and penetrating trauma make up the majority of spinal cord injuries. Medical conditions such as polio, tumors, spina bifida and ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig’s disease) comprise a small but significant number of causes of spinal cord injuries.

Symptoms

The symptoms of spinal cord injury vary greatly. Generally, the higher the level of spinal cord injury, the worse the symptoms become. In addition, if the spinal cord injury is incomplete and involves only a cross-sectional portion of the cord, certain functions, such as sensation or partial movement can be preserved.

The level of injury is the most common predictor of eventual symptoms. Injuries above the C4 level affect an individual’s ability to breathe on their own. Damage of the cervical spine at C5 or lower may allow partial movement of the shoulders and upper arms. Even lower cervical damage in the areas of C7 or T1 (the first thoracic vertebra) can result in reasonable function of the upper arms and lower arms but have problems with the dexterity of the hands.

All injuries at or above T1 can lead to at least partial quadriplegia. Between the levels of T1 and T8, the muscles of the thorax and abdominal muscles are affected and the person is considered to have paraplegia. If the damage is anywhere in the area of the 9th thoracic vertebra or below, the individual’s posture is good but they still lose the function of the legs. All lumbar injuries to the spinal cord lead to some degree of paraplegia.

An unusual condition, called central cord syndrome, involves damage, by means of stroke or hemorrhage, just the central part of the spinal cord. In this situation, the legs are much less affected than the arms and a sort of inverse paraplegia occurs. Sensory loss is variable in this condition.