A spinal cord injury involves damage to any part of the spinal cord, including the nerves found at the end of the cord, which are also called the cauda equina.
The spinal cord sends signals between your brain and the other parts of your body. Spinal cord injuries often cause changes in feeling, strength, and other body functions just below the site of the spinal cord injury. Individuals with spinal cord injury also experience social, mental, and emotional side effects.
If your spinal cord injury was due to the negligence of another person, then it’s important to seek compensation. Get in touch with a spinal cord injury lawyer for assistance in dealing with the compensation process.
Before we go further, let’s check out the contributing factors to spinal cord injuries. They include:
Falls
Violence-related injuries
Motor vehicle crashes
Osteoporosis and Osteopenia (Conditions that make your bones easier to break)
Syringomyelia (fluid-filled cavities or cysts within your spinal cord)
Ischemia (Lack of blood flow to your spinal cord)
Congenital spinal conditions such as Spina Bifida or myelomeningocele
Electrocution
Inflammatory or autoimmune conditions like transverse myelitis, multiple sclerosis, and neuromyelitis optica
The symptoms of spinal cord injuries mainly depend on the affected signals. In most cases, spinal cord injuries do not show up immediately. Some symptoms are delayed, while others are present immediately after the accident.
A spinal cord injury may be moderate, mild, or even life-threatening. This also varies depending on whether the injury is incomplete or complete and the location of the injury.
The symptoms of spinal cord injuries are classified into two aspects, namely standard symptoms and symptoms by region. The standard symptoms include:
These symptoms travel all the way from your brain to your muscles. Its symptoms include:
Paralysis (inability to control your muscles)
General body weakness
Spasticity (inability to control muscle movement)
Autonomic symptoms include:
Disruptions of body temperature, especially hypothermia (low body temperature)
Heart rate disruptions, especially bradycardia (slow heart rate)
Disruptions of blood pressure, especially hypotension (low blood pressure)
Fecal and urinary dysfunction
Erectile dysfunction
Sensory signals carry information directly to your brain. They tell your brain what’s happening around and to the body.
Some examples of sensory symptoms include:
Numbness
Generalized body pain
Tingling or paresthesia (pins-and-needles)
There are three areas where you may suffer spinal cord injury: thoracic, lumbar, and cervical.
Damage to the spinal cord in the thoracic spine affects the legs. If the damage is severe, it may affect blood pressure.
Spinal cord damage in the lumbar spine affects either one or both of your legs. If you have a lumbar spinal cord injury, you may have trouble controlling your bladder or bowel movement.
Spinal cord injury in the cervical spine is the most severe because it can be lethal. Symptoms of cervical spinal cord injury typically affect the legs, arms, and mid-body. It can also be hard to breathe on your own.
The higher up in your cervical spine the damage occurs, the worse your injury. You can also feel intense pain on one or both sides of your body.
