The central nervous system or CNS consists of the spinal cord and brain. The spine or spinal cord is a long and thin bundle that extends from the brain to your tailbone. It consists of nerve tissue and support cells. The sensory and motor information that travels in body passes through the spinal cord passageway. It is also in charge of managing reflexes in your body. Thus, damage to the spinal system can be very severe and, in some cases, even life-endangering.
What Are The Spinal Injury Symptoms?
If you sustain a spinal cord injury, the ability to control your limbs is dependent on the following two things-
- Location of the spinal cord injury
- The severity of the spinal injury
After the injury, the lowest part of your spinal cord that is undamaged is known as the neurological level of the injury. Completeness is the severity of the damage, and it can be one of the following-
- Complete
The injury is considered complete if all the senses and ability to control movements are lost from below the point of injury.
- Incomplete
If you can feel something and have some control over the function below the point of injury, it is termed incomplete. There are various degrees of an incomplete spinal injury.
The spine injury can lead to paralysis in the patient. Two types of paralysis occur due to spinal injury, known as tetraplegia and paraplegia.
Tetraplegia means that the injury affects your arms, trunk, hands, legs, and pelvic parts. Paraplegia, on the other hand, means only the trunk, legs and pelvic parts are affected.
There are specific tests that the doctors will order to determine the neurological level and completeness of the injury.
An injury to the spine can cause one or more of the below-mentioned symptoms-
- Movement loss
- Loss of ability to sense heat, cold and touch (altered sensation)
- Loss of bowel and bladder control
- Extreme reflexes or spasms
- Changed or altered sexual functioning, sensitivity and fertility
- Damage to nerve fibres in the spine can cause pain or intense stinging sensation
- Breathing difficulties, cough, clearing secretions from the lungs
Some symptoms can be termed as an emergency that indicates need for immediate medical attention. Following are the emergency spinal cord injury symptoms –
- Excess back pain or pressure in neck, head or back
- Weakness or paralysis in some part of the body
- Numbness or tingling in hands, fingers, feet or toes
- Walking or balance difficulties
- Impaired breathing
- Oddly twisted or positioned neck or back
The spinal cord is distinguished into areas, and so are the injuries. The cervical, thoracic and lumbar form the three main areas where spinal cord injury can occur. There is a fourth section of the spine called the sacral, and it doesn’t contain spinal tissue. So even if you injure the sacral nerves or vertebrae, you won’t damage the cord in that area. The signs of spinal cord injury can also differ based on which area of the spine is injured in the accident. The injury to the cervical spine can be most severe and dangerous.
- Cervical (c1-c8)
The most severe form of spinal cord injury is when the cervical spine is damaged, as it can be fatal. The symptoms from the injury can impact arms, legs, trunk and breathing ability. The higher the site of cervical injury, the worse is the injury. You may experience signs on either one or both sides of the body.
- Thoracic (T1-T12)
Legs are the most affected part when the spinal cord injury is in the thoracic spine. If the thoracic spine injury is high enough, it can cause blood pressure problems.
- Lumbar (L1-L5)
The injury to the lumbar spine can impact either one or both legs. Patients who sustain a lumbar spine injury can also have bowel and bladder control challenges.
Now that you are aware of the signs of spinal injury and the severity, you need to look for the best-known doctors to undergo the treatment. You can look up online for the best spine doctors, or you can consider visiting Germanten Hospital to be treated by some of the best doctors who can aptly diagnose the injury based on the spinal fracture symptoms you are suffering from.
WHY CHOOSE US?
Germanten Hospital has been one of India’s leading facilities for various medical treatments. Under insightful leadership, we have acquired excellence when it comes to treatments in neurology, plastic or cosmetic surgery, orthopaedics and reconstructive surgery.
Dr. Mir Jawad Zar Khan has led our hospital to the forefront of the medical industry. He has experience of 20 years in orthopaedics. His alma mater is Osmania University, where Dr. Khan achieved a gold medal for his excellence in education. He then completed advanced training in the USA and Germany.
Dr. Mir Jawad Zar Khan was awarded the “Best Doctor” by Shri Roshaiah Garu, the Former Gov. of Tamil Nadu and former CM of Andhra Pradesh. He was also felicitated with the Vaida Ratna Award in 2019 by Shri Etala Rajendra, the honourable health minister of Telangana. In addition to that, Germanten Hospital also received an award of “Best Orthopaedic Hospital In South India” from the Economic Times Group in 2021.
We have gained access to state-of-the-art medical technology and the latest advanced equipment, which has proven to be quite beneficial for our patients.