What is a Spinal Cord Injury?

Spinal cord injuries do not discriminate, they can happen to anyone regardless of their age or gender. True, there are demographics that are more susceptible to sustain a SCI and statistically, the most common are males between the ages of 18-30 through a traumatic accident or injury.

I personally fall into that category as I sustained my injury at the age of 21, I’m a male and the cause was from a high speed water-ski accident. Over the years I have been required to go through spinal rehab four times and the vast majority of other patients were males of a similar age.

A spinal cord injury (SCI) refers to any injury to the spinal cord that is caused by trauma instead of disease. Depending on where the spinal cord and nerve roots are damaged, the symptoms can vary widely, from pain to paralysis to incontinence.

The level and severity of the injury determines the classification of the SCI. There are two categories for spinal cord injuries – Tetraplegia (or commonly known as quadriplegia) and Paraplegia.

 

Spinal cord injuries are described at various levels of "incomplete", which can vary from having little or no effect on the patient to a "complete" injury which means a total loss of function.

The ASIA motor score (AMS) is a type of classification of a spinal cord injury. It is based on neurological responses, touch and pinprick sensations. There are five classifications of SCI, from ASIA ‘A’, which is a ‘complete’ injury with no movement though to ASIA ‘E’ which is ‘incomplete’ with little loss of movement.

I myself, am classified a C4 Tetraplegic ASIA ‘C’ as my injury was a dislocation from C1 to C5 it made it difficult to categories the level of my injury.

Levels of Function in Spinal Cord Injury

 

Unfortunately, there is no cure for a spinal cord injury as the nerves with in the spinal cannot regenerate or be healed. There are hopes that stem cells may one day provide a cure, but at this stage SCI are permanent.