A spinal cord injury is one of the most catastrophic injuries you can suffer. These permanent injuries can deprive you of your mobility and sensations in your body and limbs. Even if you avoid paralysis, you may experience pain, numbness, and weakness below the level of the injury.
As a result, these injuries can impact your ability to earn a living. You may need mobility aids like a wheelchair or a caretaker to help you with essential activities like driving, shopping, and cooking. While therapy might help you recover some functions, you’ll likely always experience some limitations from the damage to your spinal nerves.
Causes of Spinal Cord Injuries
A spinal cord injury happens when trauma damages one or more of the nerves in the spine. There are 31 pairs of nerves that connect your brain to your body, with each member of the pair innervating one side of your body. For example, a spinal nerve pair in your neck includes one nerve running to your right hand and another to your left.
Neurons, the cells that make up your nervous system, transmit signals in two ways. First, electrical charges created by ions carry signals. Scientists believe the pattern of electrical firing determines the content of the signal.
Second, chemicals called neurotransmitters initiate signals and determine a signal’s content and priority. For example, neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin help the brain learn new information by providing pleasurable or painful feedback.
Damage to the nerves can interfere with the transmission of these signals. Signals may become garbled, nerves may misfire, or impulses may stop altogether.
Nerves tend to suffer damage in the following three primary ways:
Laceration
Electrical and chemical signals can’t travel along a nerve severed by trauma. A laceration can happen when a foreign object, like a piece of metal, passes into the spinal canal and slices through one or more spinal nerves. This type of injury can occur when you fall onto a sharp tool in a construction accident.
You can also lacerate your spinal nerves when you break your back or neck. Fragments of the fractured vertebra can dislocate into the spinal canal and damage the spinal nerves. This possible complication is one reason paramedics secure car accident victims using a neck brace and backboard if they suspect a fractured spine.
A severed spinal nerve won’t regrow or regenerate. While doctors can perform nerve graft surgery to replace severed peripheral nerves, they haven’t yet found a way to repair a severed spinal cord.
Traction
Traction occurs when a nerve becomes stretched due to trauma. The damage caused by stretching a nerve can disrupt the signals traveling along it. As with severed nerves, doctors can’t undo the damage caused by traction.
This type of injury often occurs when the body experiences violent whipping, bending, or twisting forces. A pedestrian accident, for example, might result in a spinal cord injury even if you don’t fracture your spine.
Compression
When something presses on the spinal cord with great force, compression is the result. The pressure irritates the spinal nerves and causes them to become inflamed. This inflammation, in turn, causes the spinal nerves to misfire.
The pressure might come from a dislocated bone or bone fragment, a dislocated or deformed disc, or a foreign object. For example, a gunshot could result in a bullet pressing on the spinal cord. In some cases, the patient may recover some or all of their functions once doctors relieve the compression.
Classifying Spinal Cord Injuries
Spinal cord injuries have different effects and prognoses based on the following factors:
Extent of the Injury
Complete spinal cord injuries cut off all communication between the brain and the body at the level of the damage. For this reason, they typically cause permanent and total paralysis and loss of sensation below the injury.
An incomplete spinal cord injury permits some communication between the brain and body. The patient may retain some feeling and motor control. Additionally, they may regain some lost functions thanks to a characteristic of the brain known as neuroplasticity.
When the brain loses control over a body part, it can sometimes reroute intact nerve pathways to regain control. Intense physical therapy can help the brain through this process.
Location of the Injury
The level of the injury determines which parts will experience a loss of function.
A spinal cord injury at the top of the neck could kill the victim, as the nerve roots at this level control the chest muscles that enable breathing. Injuries below the first few vertebrae will affect the entire body below the neck. The term “quadriplegia” describes how these injuries affect all four limbs.
Injuries that occur in the chest and back will affect fewer functions because the nerve roots for the arms have already branched from the spinal cord. These injuries can produce a loss of function in the pelvis and legs, called paraplegia.
Spinal Cord Injury Symptoms
A spinal cord injury can affect motor, sensory, and autonomic functions. Here are some of the symptoms associated with each of these functions.
Motor Functions
Motor functions involve the voluntary movement of muscles.
Some common motor function symptoms include:
- Paralysis
- Weakness
- Muscle spasms
- Loss of dexterity
- Lack of coordination
With an incomplete injury, physical therapy can sometimes help patients recover some motor functions by strengthening nearby muscles and retraining the brain to use different nerves.
Sensory Functions
Your nerves carry sensory information from nerve endings in the skin and body to the brain. This information can include pain, temperature, pressure, and other sensations.
When your spinal cord suffers damage, you may experience symptoms like:
- Pain
- Numbness
- Tingling
- Loss of sensitivity to temperature
These symptoms can manifest in uninjured areas. For example, if you were to suffer an incomplete spinal cord injury after breaking your back, you might feel pain shooting down your legs even though they weren’t hurt. This can occur when the spinal nerves misfire after an injury.
Autonomic Functions
Autonomic functions control the body’s involuntary systems, such as digestion, circulation, and respiration.
Some symptoms of autonomic nerve disruptions include:
- High or low blood pressure
- Inability to perspire or excessive perspiration
- Irregular heartbeat
- Loss of bowel or bladder control
- Sexual dysfunction
These symptoms can expose you to other health problems, like heart issues or bladder infections.
Dealing With Spinal Cord Injuries
The profound effects of a spinal cord injury can disrupt every aspect of your life. You might lose your ability to perform your work duties, and you may even need daily care. Contact The Law Firm of Alton C. Todd Personal Injury Lawyers to discuss the compensation you can seek for your spinal cord injury.
Contact the Texas Personal Injury Lawyers of The Law Firm of Alton C. Todd Personal Injury Lawyers for Help Today
Please contact an experienced personal injury lawyer at The Law Firm of Alton C. Todd Personal Injury Lawyers to get a free initial consultation today our offices in Friendswood & Galveston, TX.
We serve throughout Galveston County in Texas and surrounding areas.
The Law Firm of Alton C. Todd Personal Injury Lawyers – Galveston
2101 Mechanic St. Suite 253
Galveston, TX 77550
(409) 207-9299
The Law Firm of Alton C. Todd Personal Injury Lawyers – Friendswood
312 S. Friendswood Dr.
Friendswood, TX 77546
(281) 992-8633
