Chennai: A spinal cord injury not only damages the spinal cord but it might also damage the bones and tissues. If the severity of the damage is high, it might lead to the possibility of losing function or mobility in different parts of the body and the spinal cord injury might make the body lose essential functions if the injury disables the nerves to communicate with the brain.
Talking about emergency signs and symptoms of spinal cord injury after an accident, Dr Karthik Kailash, consultant spine surgeon, Apollo Spectra, Hospitals, Chennai, said, ‘there might be extreme back pain or stress in the neck, head, or back. In any part of the body. Person might experience weakness, incoordination, or paralysis. There may also be numbness, tingling or loss of sensation in the hands, fingers, feet or toes. One may face difficulties in balancing and walking steadily. There may also be breathing difficulties after injury. And in some cases, an unusually twisted or positioned neck or back can be seen after injury.’
He added: ‘In some of the spinal cord injury cases, rehabilitation and assistive devices allow the injured ones to lead productive and independent
lives. Some of the treatments include the use of drugs in order to reduce the symptoms, Surgery is often done for patients who instability of the spine due to fracture or collapse of the bone or when there is spinal compression leading to severe pain, weakness or paralysis’
According to Dr Karthik Kailash, there are many experiments being done by the scientists to find out ways to stop cell death and promote nerve regeneration but none of them have been proven to be beneficial to the patients presently.