injuries and poisoning
Injuries of the Spinal Cord and Vertebrae
Symptoms of Spinal Injuries
If the spine is injured, people usually feel pain in the affected part of the neck or back. The area over the injury may be tender to the touch, particularly if a fracture is present. If the spinal cord is injured, the nerves at and below the site of the injury malfunction, causing loss of muscle control and loss of sensation. However, children may have spinal cord injuries in which nerves malfunction only temporarily and briefly. They may have lightning-like pains that shoot down the arms or legs. Exactly what and how much function is lost in the arms and legs depends on the location of the spinal cord injury. For example, if the spinal cord is injured in the neck, the person may lose movement and sensation in both the arms and the legs, whereas an injury farther down the spinal cord may result in dysfunction in the legs only. A person can lose control of the ability to urinate or have a bowel movement and lose sexual function regardless of the location of the spinal cord injury. When nerve damage occurs, loss of muscle control or sensation may be temporary or permanent, partial or total, depending on the severity of the injury. An injury that severs the spinal cord or destroys nerve pathways in the spinal cord causes permanent paralysis, but a blunt injury that jars the spinal cord may cause temporary weakness, which can last days, weeks, or months. Sometimes swelling causes symptoms that suggest an injury more severe than it is, but the symptoms usually lessen as the swelling subsides. Partial loss of muscle control results in muscle weakness. Paralysis usually refers to complete loss. When muscles are paralyzed, they often go limp (flaccid), losing their tone. Muscle reflexes that doctors check using a reflex hammer are weak or absent. But when the spinal cord is injured, paralysis may progress weeks later to involuntary, prolonged muscle spasms (called spastic paralysis). In this case, muscle reflexes are stronger than normal. For people who are weak or paralyzed, movement is limited or impossible. Consequently, they are at risk of developing How Blood Clots , 