Spinal Cord

Spinal Cord

Introduction

The spinal cord injuries are one of the most serious problem affecting healthcare departments, society, economics and life style of people affected by it .The document aims to explore the disabilities resulting due to spinal cord injuries from socio-economic and health perspective. It describes the disabilities in details and present arguments in regards with its rehabilitation perspectives.

Discussion

What is Spinal Cord Disability

The injuries in spinal cord can be the result of an accident, assault or motor vehicle collisions. The injuries normally start with a blow which either dislocates or fractures the vertebrae of an individual. In most of the cases the entire spinal cord is not severed, however the damage is usually caused by the pieces of vertebrae that can slit into the cord tissue or squash down on the area of nerves that is responsible for transmitting the signals. When the complete spinal cord has been injured, the cord is unable to transmit the message below the area of injury and as a result disability might result due to paralyses of the area below the point of injury. However in incomplete injury, one might experience sensation below the site of injury. The disability in such cases might vary from being temporary to long term disability. Ddistinctive common grounds of the spinal cord injuries include trauma (sports injuries, motorcycle / car accident, falls, gunshot, et cetera.), or illness (Polio, Transverse Myelitis, Spina Friedreich's Ataxia, Bifida, spinal stenosis, spinal cord tumour, et cetera.). The damage that results in spinal cord injury is known as lesion and the disability is usually in form of paralyses that is known as quadriplegia, if the cervical neck is injured or as paraplegia if the thoracic, sacral or lumbar regions are affected.

Prevalence of Disability

After the strokes, spinal cord injuries remain the leading cause of disability in developed and developing nations throughout the world. It is anticipated that the yearly frequency of Spinal Cord Injury (SCI), exclusive of the individuals who immediately die following the incident, is at approx forty cases per million populations in Untied States and more or less twelve thousand new cases are registered every year. Around twenty five thousand individuals on United States are injured owing to SCI. The disability rate fluctuates about the norm value however with increase in the technological advances the risk factors such as high speed driving can augment the disability rate. Out of the people disabled following the spinal cord injury fifty two percent individuals are noted to be paraplegic where as the remaining forty seven percent are considered to be quadriplegic. In accordance with the research conducted by Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, approximately one in hundred individual is living with paralysis resulting from spinal cord injury (Wyndaele and Wyndaele 2006).

Types of Disabilities

Cervical Spinal Cord Injury C1 - C8 -

The other name of Quadriplegia is Tetraplegia. The injuries related to cervical level result in weakness or paralyses of both legs and arms. The entire region of the body below the point of injury or ...