Spinal Injury Treatment
The spinal cord is the core of our nervous system, contributing a significant portion to it. Hence minute injury in the spinal cord can cause severe damage with permanent loss in sensation or movement of our body part or the whole body. But don't worry if you, unfortunately, got injured in the spinal cord, because we have a proper treatment program for that. Before going to that part, let us know about common signs and symptoms observed during spinal cord injury.
General symptoms
- Numbness and burning sensation in various organs
- Restricted movement and reduced control over the body
- Control over bladder and bowel movement is lost
- Improper respiration
- Dysfunctioning of sexual organs resulting in infertility
- Extreme pain in the region of spinal cord injury
- Excessive production of cough in your lungs
Classification of Spinal Injury
It is essential to be enlightened about different types of spinal injury based on its severity. Based on the region of the affected area, it can be classified as:
- Complete injury: In this type, the organs below the injury of the spinal cord has completely lost the feeling of sensation and movement. This is a very dangerous condition because both sensory and motor functioning are seized completely.
- Incomplete injury: This type of injury is different from the previous one in having a slight feeling of sensation and control in movement in the region below the injury of the spinal cord. Here, the extent of consciousness and control over organs varies from situation to situation
Again, there is another classification of spinal injury based upon the extent of the paralyzed part of the body. Following are those two types of injuries:
- Tetraplegia: In this type, the spinal cord is injured above the 1st thoracic vertebra. The effects of this injury are seen in both forelimbs and hindlimbs. That's the reason why it is called as tetraplegia because tetra means four and it is majorly affecting the four limbs. The extent of injury also depends on the severity of damage and its position. For instance, nearer the injury to the head region more severe effects will be shown on the body.
- Paraplegia: Unlike tetraplegia, injury occurs in the spinal cord below the first thoracic vertebra. Here, the forelimbs are entirely functional, but hindlimbs are affected partially depending upon the severity of the damage.
Treatment of Spinal Cord Injury
There are three methods of treating spinal cord injury using physiotherapy treatments in our clinic.
- By using traditional methods such as muscle stretching, massaging the affected areas, joint stimulation, using acupuncture, and various physical exercises.
- Activity Based Therapy (ABT). This is a therapeutic technique that includes repetitive muscle movements to strengthen the nervous connections. This method is done while you are standing, which means this is an effective method.
- Using Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) is another alternative to treat spinal cord injury. In this method, electric shocks are given to the paralyzed or affected body parts to restore their functionality.