What is Spinal Cord Injury?
Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) occurs when the spinal cord gets damaged following an accident, fall, sporting injury, or can be found in individuals diagnosed with conditions including, but not limited to Spinal Stenosis, Spinal Tumour, Polio, Spina Bifida or Transverse Myelitis.
The damage to the spinal cord might be due to severing (total or partial), crushing/compression, or over-stretching/tearing. It is not the same as having a “broken back/neck” as this refers to a fracture of one or more of the vertebrae (bones that make up the spine), which does not necessarily lead to spinal cord injury.
Your ability to move and control your limbs after a spinal cord injury depends on two factors: where the injury occurred on your spinal cord and the severity of injury.
The lowest part of your spinal cord that remains undamaged after an injury or illness is referred to as the neurological level of your injury. The severity of the injury is often called "the completeness" and is classified as either of the following:
- Complete. If all feeling (sensory) and all ability to control movement (motor) are lost below the spinal cord injury, your injury is called complete.
- Incomplete. If you have some motor or sensory function below the affected area, your injury is called incomplete. There are varying degrees of incomplete injury.
Paralysis from a spinal cord injury is often referred to as:
- Tetraplegia/Quadriplegia. a form of paralysis that affects both arms, trunk, both legs and pelvic organs, which occurs following an injury to the neck and upper back. Depending on the severity of the tetraplegia-causing injury/condition the individual may need to use assistive breathing devices, like a respirator.
- Paraplegia. This paralysis affects the trunk, both legs, and pelvic organs, which occurs following an injury to the mid and lower back. If only one leg is affected this is known as monoplegia of the leg.
Depending on the level and severity of Spinal Cord Injury diagnosis, the problems associated can include:
- Loss of movement.
- Loss of or altered sensation, including the ability to feel heat, cold and touch.
- Loss of bowel or bladder control.
- Exaggerated reflex activities or spasms.
- Changes in sexual function, sexual sensitivity and fertility.
- Pain or an intense stinging sensation caused by damage to the nerve fibres in your spinal cord.
- Difficulty breathing, coughing or clearing secretions from your lungs.
PhysioFunction's Neurological Physiotherapy treatment is aimed at addressing the problems that can occur following SCI so that an individual can maximise their function and maximise their abilities.
