How can spinal injuries occur

Feeding tube placed through the nostril to the stomach, or directly through the abdomen into the stomach, to provide extra nutrition and calories. Recovery from a SCI often requires long-term hospitalization and rehabilitation. An interdisciplinary team of healthcare providers, including nurses, therapists physical, occupational, or speech , and other specialists work to control your pain and to monitor your heart function, blood pressure, body temperature, nutritional status, bladder and bowel function, and attempt to control involuntary muscle shaking spasticity.

There is no sure way to prevent SCI, but there are many steps you can take that might lower your risk, including:. Wear a helmet when riding a motorcycle or participating in any sports or activities that may result in head injury bike riding, skiing, hockey, football, etc.

Physical therapy will likely be a very important part of your rehabilitation. In this treatment, specialists will work with you to prevent muscle wasting and contractures, and to help you retrain other muscles to aid in mobility and movement. Another type of therapy is occupational therapy, which helps you learn new ways of doing everyday tasks in spite of your new physical limitations.

A traumatic event that results in a SCI is devastating to both you and your family. The healthcare team will help educate your family after hospitalization and rehabilitation on how to help care for you at home and understand the specific problems that require immediate medical attention.

You will need frequent medical evaluations and testing after hospitalization and rehabilitation to monitor your progress. You may feel sad or depressed after your injury. If this happens to you or a loved one, your healthcare provider may recommend that you see a mental health professional.

Depending on the severity of the injury, some people might recover some of their lost function, but others might continue to have long-term problems. Be sure to talk with your healthcare provider about when you would need to call them. Your healthcare provider will likely advise you to call them if any problems you are having become worse, including weakness, numbness or other changes in sensation, or changes in bladder or bowel control.

People who have serious long-term effects from a spinal cord injury can also develop a number of other complications. Your healthcare provider might advise you to call them if you have problems such as:.

An acute spinal cord injury is caused by trauma to the spinal cord. It is a medical emergency that needs to be treated right away. The severity of symptoms such as weakness, paralysis, and loss of feeling depends on how badly the spinal cord is damaged and where on the cord the injury occurs.

Damage to the cord in the middle of the back might affect only the legs, whereas damage to the spinal cord in the neck might also affect the arms and even the breathing muscles.

Treatment might include surgery, medicine , and other treatments as needed. Some people might recover some function over time, but others might continue to have long-term problems. Physical and occupational therapy can help you adapt to new ways of doing things.

At the visit, write down the name of a new diagnosis, and any new medicines, treatments, or tests. Also write down any new instructions your provider gives you. More commonly, loss of function is 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 may be able to move one arm or leg more than the other or may have more functioning on one side of the body than the other. The scale is graded with letters:. Spinal concussions can also occur. These can be complete or incomplete, but spinal cord dysfunction is transient, generally resolving within one or two days. Football players are especially susceptible to spinal concussions and spinal cord contusions.

The latter may produce neurological symptoms, including numbness, tingling, electric shock-like sensations and burning in the extremities. Open or penetrating injuries to the spine and spinal cord, especially those caused by firearms, may present somewhat different challenges. Most gunshot wounds to the spine are stable; i. Depending upon the anatomy of the injury, the patient may need to be immobilized with a collar or brace for several weeks or months so that the parts of the spine fractured by the bullet heals.

In most cases, surgery to remove the bullet does not yield much benefit and may create additional risks, including infection, cerebrospinal fluid leak and bleeding. In the trauma situation, the doctor will check first to make sure the patient has a working airway, is breathing and has a pulse. After days or weeks, the swelling begins to go down, and people may regain some functioning and spinal cord injury recovery.

With many spinal cord injuries, especially incomplete ones, the individual may recover some function as late as 18 months after the injury. In very rare cases, people with spinal cord injury will regain some functioning years after the injury.

However, only a small fraction of individuals sustaining a spinal cord injury recover all function. Learn how you can gain more independence at a spinal cord injury rehabilitation center. No, not everyone who has a spinal cord injury will need to use a wheelchair. Wheelchairs are a tool for mobility. High C-level injuries usually require the individual to use a power wheelchair.

Low C-level injuries and below usually allow the person to use a manual chair. Advantages of manual chairs are that they cost less, weigh less, disassemble into smaller pieces and are more agile. However, for the person who needs a power chair, the independence afforded by the chair is worth the limitations. Some people are able to use braces and crutches for ambulation.

These methods of mobility do not mean the person will never use a wheelchair. Many people who use braces still find wheelchairs more useful for longer distances. However, the therapeutic and activity levels allowed by standing or walking briefly may make braces a reasonable alternative for some people.

Of course, people who use wheelchairs aren't always in them. They drive, swim, fly planes, ski and do many activities out of their chair. If you hang around people who use wheelchairs long enough, you may see them sitting in the grass pulling weeds, sitting on your couch, or playing on the floor with children or pets.

And, of course, people who use wheelchairs don't sleep in them; they sleep in a bed. The life expectancy of someone with a spinal cord injury can vary depending on level of injury.

The most common cause of death is due to diseases of the respiratory system, with most of these being due to pneumonia. In fact, pneumonia is the leading cause of death throughout the entire year period immediately following SCI for all age groups, both males and females, all ethnicities and people with quadriplegia.

The survival rate at 25 or more years after injury is 60 percent; this number has been climbing steadily over the years. In addition, many of the leading indicators show the quality of that extended life expectancy is good. Before World War II, most people who sustained a spinal cord injury died within weeks of their injury from urinary dysfunction, respiratory infection or bedsores.

With the advent of modern antibiotics, modern materials such as plastics and latex, and better procedures for dealing with the everyday issues of living with SCI, many people approach the lifespan of non-disabled individuals.

Interestingly, other than level of spinal cord injury or paralysis, the type of rehabilitation facility used is the greatest indicator of long-term survival.

This illustrates the importance of and difference made by going to a facility that specializes in spinal cord injury. Spinal cord injuries Open pop-up dialog box Close. Spinal cord injuries Paralysis of the lower half of the body is called paraplegia. Request an Appointment at Mayo Clinic. Central nervous system Open pop-up dialog box Close. Central nervous system The spinal cord extends downward from the base of your brain.

Share on: Facebook Twitter. Show references Spinal cord injury: Hope through research. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Accessed July 10, Hansebout RR, et al. Acute traumatic spinal cord injury. Spinal cord injury. American Association of Neurological Surgeons. Jankovic J, et al. Spinal cord trauma. Elsevier Inc. Accessed July 20, Mayo Clinic; Abrams GM, et al.

Chronic complications of spinal cord injury and disease. Accessed June 22, Anjum A, et al. Spinal cord injury: Pathophysiology, multimolecular interactions, and underlying recovery mechanisms.

International Journal of Molecular Sciences. Spinal trauma. Merck Manual Professional Version. Accessed June 10, Ge L, et al.