Spinal Cord Injury Essay

* Following a SCI, the first priority is often to help the patient develop as much possible strength in the

Having a spinal cord injury can be a very life changing event in many ways. It can affect the ability to function in different daily activities. Spinal cord injury mostly affects people during their early adult 19 years old and an average age at the time of injury of 38 (National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center 2006). Since a spinal cord injury affects all systems of the human body, a lot of people who end up with a spinal injury have serious inquires about how their injuries will affect their performance in a sexual relationship. The way you feel about sex and the ability to have sex is important and is different for everyone. Having injury to the spinal cord will have some effect on sexual functions in the body. The level of which sexual

Approximately 7,800 people suffer from a new spinal cord injury every year in the United States. Eighty-two percent of spinal cord injuries happen to males. The age group most at risk for spinal cord injury is 16-30 years old. Fifteen percent of spinal cord injuries are a result of violence, forty-eight percent result from motor vehicle accidents, and twenty-one percent result from falls. Suffering a spinal cord injury can result in a complete change in lifestyle. It can affect relationships, ability to work, and basic daily tasks such as bathing. My research question will address some of the ways a paraplegic has to adjust his daily routine, things they have to be aware of following a spinal cord injury, as well as focus on ways they can become

Most spinal cord injuries are hard to treat due to the fragility of the vertebrae as a whole. Although; if left untreated, spinal cord injuries could affect motor and nerve control and function (Zhao et.al 2016). Stem injections are now commonly used as a type of rehabilitative medicine for injuries like those in the spine. This is because stem cells can take form of other specified cells it becomes exposed to. Once injected into the area of the injury, the cells are able to replicate and serve to renew the cells that have been lost or damaged. Three different studies done on rats were observed for the effects of outside variables, such as time and contents, on the efficiency of stem cell treatments. In one study, rats with the spinal cord

Injuries can happen to anyone, anywhere. Injuries affect people’s lives as they limit their choices, temporarily or permanently. Most injuries are not preventable, because most happen unexpectedly. For example, spinal cord injuries can occur if a person falls abruptly on his/her back and shatters their spinal cord. Although injuries cannot be prevented, they can be healed. New technologies are under development to solve major injuries, which do not yet have a cure. One of these major injuries is a spinal cord injury.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating event that often leads to extreme losses of motor, sensory, and autonomic nervous system functions. Additionally, up to two-thirds of all SCIs develop chronic neuropathic pain syndromes, severely decreasing the quality of life for affected individuals (1, 2). A typical SCI results from a traumatic force exerted on the spinal cord, resulting in immediate tissue destruction at the time of impact referred to as primary SCI. The tissue adjacent to the injury immediately becomes vulnerable to a secondary cascade of vascular, biochemical, and inflammatory changes that advance tissue degeneration and lead to neurological dysfunction referred to as secondary SCI (3, 4). The inflammatory response is the most

A study titled Effects of FES-Ambulation Training on Locomotor Function and Health-Related Quality of Life in Individuals With Spinal Cord Injury, found that those with Asia D Spinal Cord injuries showed significant improvement in the 6 minute walk test, and body weight support training. ASIA is a spinal cord impairment scale and those who are ASIA D are classified with motor function preserved below neurological level and more than half of key muscles below the level have a grade of 3 or more.7 The study also showed a non-significant increase with 10 meter walk test for walking speed. Patients showed an increase with the Walking Index for Spinal Cord Injury II (WISCI II) and in the Short Term Form -36 pain score. The WISCI II is used to look at the amount of assistance needed with walking and assistive devices used with those who have an SCI. There were 6 participants in the study with an average of 9.3 years post injury. They excluded those that took part in FES training within 3 months, those with a history of heart disease, current pressure ulcers, unpredictable autonomic dysreflexia, fractures, and other musculoskeletal issues that would make it unsafe to exercise. They took measurements 24-48 hours before the first exercise program and then 48-72 hours after the last exercise

Patient Description: Patient is a 46 yr old male; 3 months post traumatic spinal cord injury. Patient is dependent and bed bound for majority of the day. Patient presents with BUE weakness and poor control and sensation in BLE. Patient also demonstrates poor trunk control and has extensive pain in LUE.

Spinal cord injuries are traumatic to people and do not just affect their physical body, but their mind and spirit. Using stem cells to help improve some of the physical functioning that the human body has after the initial spinal cord injury will also help improve their mental and emotional wellbeing. The discipline of psychology will look at the mental progress that patients make when undergoing stem cell therapy. By improving the mental health of a person who has undergone a spinal cord injury it will also have a cascade of effects because a person’s mental health impacts many different things in their body. This will allow me to relate the topic back using other disciplines outside of psychology, but disciplines that psychology can affect.

Spinal cord injuries are fractures or dislocations to the vertebrae. Spinal cord injuries can be classified as either complete or incomplete. Complete means that spinal cord can no longer send messages below the injured area resulting in paralysis. With incomplete spinal cord injuries there is still some movement and sensation below the injured area. Spinal cord injuries can be caused for many reason including but not limited to: hyperflexion, hyperextension, axial loading or vertical compression, excessive rotation, or penetrating trauma. Spinal cord injuries are commonly caused by vehicle accidents, violence, falls, and sports injuries.

Doctors around the world aid people who are in search of dying by helping them reach an early death. The process is known as euthanasia. Euthanasia is a mercy killing that prevents people from enduring terminal sickness, suffering the pain of a long lasting condition, or the loss of a patient's dignity.

A 22 year-old graphic designer name Alex A. got into a car accident that led to spinal cord injuries. The spinal cord controls body functions and feelings through ascending and descending impulses to the brain (Groves 1995). This accident prevented the patient’s spinal cord from delivering sensory or motor function below C2. A ventilator was needed for him to breath and he was fed intravenously. For this reason, a surgery was required to stabilize his condition. After five months of rehabilitation at spinal cord injury center, his motor and sensory function improved by being able to move his hands adequately. However, his lower extremities are concerned since he still had problems with mobility and defecation.

As medical school students, what are a few things that come to mind when thinking about the nervous system? The Brain? The spinal cord? Indeed, but The nervous system is a highly complex with a great deal of functions that helps us take-in and respond to the world around us. Its basic functions are involved in receiving information about the environment around us but it is understood in sensation, response and integration. It is reason for our necessary physiological functions and the very essential for certain things such as eating and breathing. So when we think of the brain and spinal cord it is because those are the two things that make the first part; the central nervous system. The second part is the peripheral nervous system which is

The efficacy of using a MFAC electrical stimulation to the quadriceps muscles (rectus femoris and vastus medialis) to Mr. S with an incomplete spinal cord injury with quadriparesis at the C5 level may have played a key role to accelerate his progress towards improving his strength and functional abilities in performing sit to stand and locomotion or gait, and improve his skills in performing transfers.

The second article I chose to summarize discusses the rehabilitation process on a rat with a spinal cord injury. The method they used to rehabilitate the rats spinal cord was by electrically stimulating neurons that would normally be stimulated if the rats spinal cord was not damaged. The whole purpose of the study was to find a way to help people who are experiencing spinal cord damage which can severely limit the way a person carries out day to day activities. The article states that before now other rehabilitation efforts helped some but not enough to allow the person experiencing the injury to recover. How the electrical stimulation works is, electrical excitation is given to the parts of the undamaged spinal cord of the rat, this then