Spinal Cord Injury Information

I sincerely hope the information presented will be useful and help you and yours cope with this devastating injury.

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SCI INFORMATION, Injury

This important section is devoted to spinal cord injury, and includes information about the actual spinal cord injury, the changes that take place in the body, the spinal cord and what it does, the spinal column, differences in the type of spinal cord injury, the recovery process and terminology used when discussing SCI.

Injury Difference

  A spinal cord injury is often caused by the movement of vertebrae. When bones in your back and neck are broken or when ligaments are torn, the spinal cord can get caught between two vertebrae. Sometimes stab wounds or gunshot wounds can damage the cord without breaking bones.

  Damage to your spinal cord can cause changes in your movement, feeling, bladder control, or other bodily functions. How many changes there are depends on where your spinal cord was injured. The main problem is that the connection between your brain and the parts of your body below the injury is impaired.

  A numbering system is used to name levels of injury, It is the same as the system used to name bone and nerve levels in your back. A spinal cord injury is named for the lowest level of the spinal cord that still functions the way it did before your injury. It becomes very important to your rehabilitation that you know your level of injury and, more importantly, how it affects your body.

  The Difference Between Complete and Incomplete Injuries is when there is no voluntary movement (spasms don’t count — they are involuntary) or feeling below your spinal cord injury level, you have a complete injury. If you do have some feeling or voluntary movement below your injury, you have an incomplete injury. This happens when there is only partial damage to your spinal cord.

  The difference between upper motor neurons (UMNs) and lower motor neurons (LMNs) was discussed in a different section. This section will tell you why it is important that you know this.

  Most spinal injuries damage UMNs and LMNs. A complete injury cuts right across all the UMNs running up and down the spinal cord. This disrupts the connection between the brain and the parts of the body below the injury. On the other hand, only the LMNs right at the level of injury are damaged. Because they are in charge of reflex actions, only a small portion of those reflexes (governed by the LMNs at the level of injury) are lost. All other reflexes, above and below the level of injury, are still in working order. This is a UMN injury..

  The reflex action that the LMNs carry out below the level of injury may still work, but there is one problem. In reflexes, the brain keeps control on how much your nerves react. In an UMN injury, control by the brain no longer exists because messages from the brain can’t get through the point of injury. The LMNs act by themselves, causing reflexes without limit. One example is spasticity, Spasticitv is the uncontrolled movement of your arms or legs.

  LMN injuries are a different story. This kind of injury is found for the most part at the lower tip of the spinal cord, or the cauda equina. Damage to the cauda equina impairs reflex actions. This is because the cauda equina is made up entirely of LMNs. Other LMNs above the injury are still in good shape

  Spasticity is not found in LMN injuries as it is in UMN injuries, because muscles governed by these LMNs tend to shrink or atrophy. This is because they do not have any direct nerve contact to stimulate them.

  Stated simply, a UMN injury is one where the UMN pathway is broken and the only LMNs that get damaged are at the site of injury. An LMN injury, usually at the cauda equina, breaks the connection of the LMNs to the spinal cord. It will be very important for you to know which type of injury you have, because how your spinal cord injury is managed will differ depending on that. fact.