What is Acute Spinal Cord Injury: Symptoms, Causes & Treatment

Acute spinal cord injury or SCI results from a traumatic injury that either partially or fully damages one’s spinal cord. The chances of getting this injury are more common among older men and young people who have suffered an accident.

This injury limits a person’s locomotion capacity and gradually leads to organ dysfunction below the spinal column injury spot. If not treated well and on time, this disease can cause permanent disability or even result in fatality among children and older adults. Read on to better understand the condition, symptoms, causes, treatment and prevention strategies.

What Are the Types of Acute Spinal Cord Injury?

The vertebrae form the protective casing of the spinal cord. If the vertebrae suffer damage, it does not necessarily mean an injury to the spinal cord. Similarly, there can be internal bruises in a person’s spinal column without dislocation or cracks in the vertebrae.

The severity of the spinal cord injury depends on how high up the vertebrae the injury has occurred. Based on severity, we can distinguish acute spinal cord injury into two major types:

Complete injury: Complete damage can occur in any portion of the spinal column. For example, a person suffering from complete SCI has no movement capabilities below the impact area; neither do they manage to feel sensations in the affected portion of their body.
Incomplete injury: People who suffer from incomplete spinal cord injury can use one side of their body more effectively. They can even feel in specific areas of their body below the affected area of the spinal cord

What Are the Signs and Symptoms of Acute Spinal Cord Injury?

Acute SCI symptoms tend to vary based on the location, i.e., whether the damage has occurred in the thoracic, cervical, lumbar, or sacral regions. Initially, people suffer from spinal shocks that may last for up to some weeks. Common symptoms that develop later on include:

Muscle spasticity: Abnormal arm, shoulder, wrist or finger positions due to muscle stiffness caused by damage to nerve pathways
Breathing problems: Increase in the number of inhales per minute typically indicating that a person is facing trouble with adequate oxygen intake needed for proper lung functioning
Muscle weakness: These issues combine early and mid-stages of paralysis
Loss of feeling: Depending on what part of the spinal cord is damaged, the patient experiences numbness on their trunk and limbs below the impact area
Digestive problems: Acute abdomen pain arises now and then as a person faces problems in removing excretory products from their large intestine
Bladder dysfunction: Incontinence appears as the connection between the urinary bladder and the brain gets interrupted due to spinal cord damage
Sexual problems: An affected person usually lacks sexual reflexes and even the sense of touch

What Are the Causes of Acute Spinal Cord Injury?

You risk developing acute spinal cord injury whenever the spine or neck gets compressed for several reasons. The spinal column can get bent in the following ways posing a threat of a complete or partial injury:

Vehicular accidents, either while driving or riding as a pillion
Falling from the staircase or slipping on a wet floor
Neck injuries occurring at the time of birth
Sports injuries
Violence such as gunshots or injury through stabbing, if the spinal cord gets wounded
Accidents on trampolines

What Are the Risks of Acute Spinal Cord Injury?

A few of the risks of acute spinal cord injury include the following:

Males are usually more prone to spinal cord injury
Individuals older than 43 years are more likely to suffer from SCI
Vehicle crashes

How to Diagnose Acute Spinal Cord Injury?

Doctors ask a few questions to their visitors to analyse whether sensory responsiveness or movement is inhibited due to acute spinal cord injury. While examining the patients, if the practitioner sights significant symptoms like muscle weakness, neck pain etc., they suggest the individual undertake a few tests:

X-rays: Doctors recommend X-rays as it helps them to spot potential spinal tumors, degenerative activities in the neurotransmitters or fractures in the vertebrae.
CT scan: For more precise and detailed imaging of the spaces indicating anomalies, doctors prescribe that their patients get a CT scan done. CT scanning can accurately portray core reasons resulting in discomfort by capturing cross-sectional images of the spinal cord and displaying them on a monitor.
MRI: It relies heavily on a computerised mechanism that implements electromagnetic and radio waves to facilitate a more thorough report on spinal cord conditions. Doctors can identify foreign particles or blood clots that painfully compress an individual’s spinal cord by conducting an MRI. It can even locate herniated disks at an early stage, helping medical practitioners in taking timely action.

What Is the Treatment for Acute Spinal Cord Injury?

Prompt medical intervention is absolutely mandatory after a heavy accident or injury that can potentially cause a spinal cord injury. Doctors first immobilise the patient’s head and neck to ensure no further movements worsen the injury.

After the initial step, the medical team follows a set of procedures depending on the following factors:

The extent of the injury
Type of the acute spinal cord injury
Patient’s past medical records, age, and overall health status
Patient’s physical response to initial treatment
Preference of the patient or their family members (depending on the situation)

Spinal cord regeneration is not achievable yet, but medical research teams strive to enhance the possibilities in this field. Depending on the location and impact severity, surgery is sometimes the only option.

To stabilize the damaged vertebrae and reduce pressure at the affected zone, treatment strategies include:

Hospitalisation: Assigning medical attendants to the patient in an ICU
Breathing Assistance: Recommending a 24x7 breathing instrument to ensure the patient does not find breathing issues
Corticosteroids: Prescribing corticosteroids to reduce swelling
Feeding Tube: Fixing a feeding tube through the patient’s nostril to his stomach to ensure they do not suffer from starvation throughout the treatment

What Are the Preventive Measures for Acute Spinal Cord Injury?

People with quadriplegia face numerous problems in their daily life as their movement capabilities greatly diminish. Mainly accidents and mishaps are the reasons behind acute spinal cord injuries, so some preventive measures can be:

Wearing seatbelts while driving so you can stay protected
Staying sober while driving
Keeping clean homes to reduce the chances of tripping
Avoid moving people with spinal injury without proper experience
Avoiding sports and exercises that are extreme for your capability
Inspecting your children at the playground
Maintaining proper precautions while swimming or jumping into a pool
Staying mindful to avoid any accident

A reliable medical team must treat Acute Spinal Cord Injury with utmost care as it will require intensive follow-up appointments, each with a specific purpose. Patients must raise questions regarding the purpose of a prescribed steroid or treatment and pre-plan any questions they may have regarding a particular test. Taking prior preparations before visiting the clinic will help evaluate the most optimum treatment options for better recovery.

Frequently Asked Questions

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How do neurologists treat stage one of cervical spinal cord injury?

The doctors prescribe corticosteroids that help relieve tissue inflammation and prevent other severe conditions like blood clots. Besides this, the patient is kept under ventilation to check if they are facing breathing issues. Finally, the medical team sometimes opts for surgery to reinforce the affected section of the backbone.

Who is at higher risk for acute SCI?

Generally, people older than 42 develop greater chances of acute SCI from falls, sports injuries, motor accidents, spinal cord infections, etc. Moreover, non-Hispanic whites are most prone to this disorder among all ethnic groups.

Are there any Complications of Spinal Cord Injury?

Yes, there might be several complications of SCI. For instance, it may result in loss of muscle tone, mental health conditions, stroke, cardiac arrest, etc.