Spinal Cord Injury Prevention

Injury on the spine is one of the most risky things that could happen to a person. The spine contains nerves that convey messages from the brain to the other parts of the body so any damage in that part could affect the overall body functions. Damage in the spine can result to a person being a paraplegic or a quadriplegic.

Recent advances in emergency care and rehabilitation allow many spinal cord injury patients to survive, ways for reducing the amount of injury and for restoring function are still limited.

Presently, there is no treatment or cure for spinal cord injury. On the other hand, constant research to test surgical and drug therapies continues to make progress.

• Drug treatments


• Decompression surgery


• Nerve cell transplantation


• Nerve regeneration


• Stem cells


• Complex drug therapies

These are all being examined in clinical trials as ways to overcome the effects of SCI.

However, spinal cord injury prevention is crucial to decreasing the impact of these injuries on individual patients and on society. In order to avoid being placed in this position it is important to know that ways and means for spinal cord injury prevention.

Some of the typical causes of spinal cord injury are:

• vehicular accidents


• violence


• slips and falls


• sports and recreation injuries


• diseases

People who experience any of these situations have to seek medical opinion even if they do not feel any symptoms. It is usually sometime after such incident occurred that a person may feel differently.

Some of the tips for spinal cord injury prevention include the observation of caution when driving a vehicle. No drunk driving and be sure to always put the seatbelt on. Be careful when using stairs, ladders or when using stools to reach high places in order to avoid falls. Proper caution when involving in sports activities is another thing to consider avoiding body injuries particularly to that of the spine.