Spinal Cord Injury Report

* Jason is experiencing a complete SCI with no movement of anything below his groin. The neurological level stops at the thoracic cord.

Now that I have shared a brief overview of the spinal cord and some statistics about spinal cord injuries, we will look at the past research that has led to the treatments most commonly used today. In 1990, a steroid called dexamethasone was discovered in human trials to preserve some motor and sensory function if administered at high doses within 8 hours of injury. Surgery used to remove fluid, tissue, or bone fragments, or to stabilize fractured vertebrae by fusing bones or inserting hardware has also proven to be one of the most thorough measures to prevent further harm. I received both of these treatments after my accident, and they are the same that have been used for the past decade. Until recently, doctors had no way of limiting such disabilities, aside from stabilizing the cord to prevent added destruction, treating infections, and prescribing rehabilitative therapy to maximize any remaining capabilities.

A Spinal Cord Injury is damage to any part of the Spinal Cord nerves at the end of the Spinal Canal. Every Year, 17,000 Spinal Cord Injuries are reported in the USA alone. The Most Frequent age for Spinal Cord Injuries is 19. Almost 200 Spinal Cord Injuries were reported for High School Football. People who suffer from SCI (Spinal Cord injuries) can experience muscle weakness, poor coordination, and overactive reflexes.There is many

Turning and ambulation after activities will be enhanced if pain is controlled or tolerable because promotes muscle relaxation.

The central nervous system is what connects the brain to the muscles of the body. When a patient has an injury to the spinal cord, movements in certain parts of the body will be affected based on the location of the injury. If the injury affects hand motion then many day to day tasks are affected. This literature review seeks to understand how an injury to the spinal cord impacts movement, and what has been done so far to help those affected by spinal cord injuries.

Although the physiology and function is somewhat different in rodents and human spinal cords there are many biological functions that are conserved in vertebrate animals (2). In many spinal cord injuries, rat models are employed to study cell death, inflammation, and regeneration (2). In surgical modeling, recapitulating the physiology is important to insure surgical techniques can be employed across species. Non-human primates contain spinal cords that are more like humans due to closer evolutionary distance (3). Using both model organisms can help to answer questions on the cellular level as well as the macroscopic concept of

Spinal cord injury is a serious problem that effects close to 250,000 people in the United States with 10,000 people being injured per year . There are many things that can lead to spinal cord injury, including athletic injuries, car accidents, and recreational activities like swimming and biking. It primarily effects those between the ages of 16 and 30 and drastically effects the rest of their lives. It is a very debilitating injury that requires extensive medical care, often leaves the patients in a great deal of pain for the rest of their lives(2), and the treatment of which costs $10 billion dollars a year in the US.(facts from site 1) With all of these factors spurring research on there is a strong drive to

A spinal cord injury is defined as any damage done to the spinal cord that causes changes in function. Until recently, there was little knowledge known about the aftermath effects of a post spinal cord injury. Two different research teams decided to test the aftereffects that spinal cord injuries have on the well-being of a person. Both research teams tested the well-being of patients based on a multitude of different factors; such as, religion, gender, income, age and many other factors.

There are four main phases of spinal shock. They are Hyporeflexia that is due to loss of descending facilitation which is the first phase that last for approximately a day. The second phase initial reflex returns and denervation super sensitivity which occurs within 1-3 days of the spinal shock (Silver, 1970). The third phase takes up to four weeks it’s the initial Hyperreflexia with axon-supported synapse growth. The last phase is the Hyperreflexia and spasticity through

“Normal activity if the spinal cord cells at and below the level of injury ceases because of loss of the continuous tonic discharge from the brain or brain stem and inhibition of suprasegmental impulses immediately after cord injury, thus causing spinal shock” (Huether 383). Below the level of the injury, reflex function is completely lost resulting in spinal shock. Everything is included in spinal shock ranging from the skeletal muscles, bowel, sexual functions, bladder, to autonomic control. Paralysis and loss of muscle below the level of injury will be present. This patient should also have no control over her bladder and rectal functions. Her blood pressure will drop and there will be poor venous circulation noted. This woman’s

Zarb, G., Oliver, M. & Silver, J., 1990, Ageing with Spinal Cord Injury: The Right to a Supportive Environment?, London: Thames Polytechnic/Spinal Injuries Association.

1. Following a severe spinal cord injury in the lumbar region, the voluntary muscles of the legs and hips will be paralyzed. Describe the effects of paralysis on the skeleton.

The deformation in the structure of spinal cord after an injury causes the conduction of impulse to be disrupted and the body functions are lost. This happens relying on the severity of the injury. There are different devices which have been developed or are under development to restore the body functions after a spinal cord injury. Neuroprosthetic treatment has a promising future and it is a technology which can be used to restore motor and autonomic functions and also to get the sensory feedback. Described here are the neuroprostheses which are currently in different stages of development be it preclinical, commercialization or testing and it involoves functional electrical stimulators, epidural and intraspinal microstimulation, bladder neuroprosthesis, and cortical stimulation for restoring sensation. Following the brief background of the SCI and neuroprosthesis is the chronology of the developments related to neuromuscular excitation. The electrical stimulation in the form of functional electrical stimulation (FES) is discussed in detail which can help facilitate and improve upper/lower limb mobility along with other body functions lost due to injury. The applications and the future directions are

Spinal Cord lies within spinal Canal present in each vertebrae of vertebral column that is back bone. Injury to the vertebrae in the form of fracture or dislocation can lead to injury to spinal cord.

Neurostimulation, also referred to as spinal cord stimulation (SCS), is a procedure that is widely used to relieve chronic pain (Jeon, 2012). Although according to several sources, the technology has been shown to increase the limb movement in patients with paralysis by using steady impulses sent to the nerves in the body (Edgerton et al., 2015; Lu et al., 2016; Minassian & Hofstoetter, 2016; UC San Diego Health, 2002). The reason individuals have paralysis is because they are victims of spinal cord injury (Minassian & Hofstoetter, 2016). Spinal cord injury is a result of damages made to the vertebrae, ligaments, or disk that are found in the spinal column the spinal cord (NICHD, 2017).