When a patient experiences a severe spinal injury, he or she may likely lose sensation below the level of his or her injury which can potentially lead to paralysis, depending on how severe the spinal injury is and the location of the damage.
Severe spinal injuries and spinal injuries in general can cause severe pain in the back, head, neck and cause loss of sensation.
A primary symptom of spinal injuries including severe spinal injuries are a loss of feeling or numbness below the injury site on the body and impairment of motor function including difficulty or inability to move the muscles below the injury level which can lead to paralysis.
Even a loss of bladder control or loss of bowel control can also occur with a spinal injury including severe spinal injuries.
A spinal cord injury is not the same as a back injury.
Back injuries can occur without damage or injury to the spinal cord.
Spinal cord injuries are injuries that result to the spinal cord itself and specifically damages your spinal cord, which is the bundle of nerves that carries signals between your brain and your body.
Spinal cord injuries can cause loss of sensation or even paralysis depending on the level of injury to the spinal cord.
Back injuries are not as severe in most cases as a spinal cord injury and often involve muscles, tissues and ligaments that surround your spine.
When the spinal cord is damaged it can cause back pain, loss of sensation, loss of movement, pain, pressure in the head, neck or back, loss of bladder and bowel control, urge incontinence or urine retention.
When the spinal cord is damaged it can also cause weakness, inability to move parts of the body, tingling, numbness or loss of feeling in your hands, feet or other parts of the body and difficulty breathing, coughing or clearing out secretions from your lungs.
A spinal column defect is an abnormal curve or rotation of your spine.
Your spine is made of disks and vertebrae which are normally curved from the side and straight from the front.
Spinal column defects and spinal deformities can result from birth defects, trauma, aging and degeneration.
Common types of spinal column defects and spinal deformities include scoliosis, Kyphosis and Lordosis.
Lordosis is an abnormal inward curve of your lower back.
Kyphosis is an abnormal forward curvature of your upper back which can cause a humped appearance.
Scoliosis is an abnormal side to side curvature of your spine which can affect anyone of any age.
The brain is more important than the spinal cord as the brain acts as the central control center for all the body's processing of information and initiating actions.
The spinal cord mainly functions as a pathway to transmit signals between your brain and the rest of your body.
Your brain controls very complex functions like thought, emotion, memory, perception, and movement.
While the spinal cord is vital for communication, the spinal cord primarily relays signals from your brain to different body parts and sends sensory information to the brain.
Your brain is basically the computer of the body.
The brain controls most of the functions of the body, including awareness, movement, thinking, speech, and the 5 senses.
The L5 S1 column is the spinal segment that is located at the very bottom of your lower back and where the lumbar spine L5 vertebra meets up with the sacrum or S1 vertebra.
The L5 S1 column is also the transition point between your lumbar curve and your sacral curve and is vulnerable for potential back pain and disc herniation as a result of the high stress that it experiences.
The L4 and L5 spinal column are the 4th and the 5th vertebrae in your lumbar spine and is located in your lower back.
Your L4-L5 spinal motion segment and includes the soft tissues, joints, nerves, intervertebral disc and vertebrae and supports your upper body and allows the trunk to also move in many different direction.
Your L4 and L5 vertebrae are also larger than other vertebrae in your spine and are much more likely to develop pain and degenerative changes because of the weight bearing function and ability that they have.
The four columns of the spinal cord GREY matter are the ventral horn, dorsal horn, lateral horn and intermediate column.
The GREY matter when looking at a cross section of your spinal cord is divided into the 4 columns and each section contain different types of neurons that are responsible for specific functions.
The ventral horn contains motor neurons which send signals to your muscles.
The lateral horn is only present in certain spinal cord segments and are primarily involved in the autonomic nervous system.
The intermediate column contains various interneurons which connect different parts of your spinal cord.
And the dorsal horn mainly receives sensory information.
The spinal column is also called the vertebral column or the backbone.
The backbone, spinal column and vertebral column are all terms that mean the same thing and refer to a series of bones which run from the base of your skull to your tailbone and support your body and also protect your spinal cord.
Humans only have one spinal column although the one spinal column is made up of 33 individual bones called vertebrae that are stacked together.
But by adulthood, some of the vertebrae at the bottom of our spine fuse together and result in most people having 24 moveable vertebrae.
The columns in the spinal cord are the posterior column, middle column and the anterior column.
The posterior column is everything that is posterior to the PLL and the pedicles.
The middle column is the posterior one third of the vertebral body and the posterior one third of the intervertebral disc.
The anterior column is the anterior longitudinal ligament and the anterior two thirds of the vertebral body.
The difference between the spinal cord and the spinal column are the spinal column is a stack of bones which protects your spinal cord.
And the spinal cord is a bundle of nerves and tissues which run inside your spinal column.
The spinal cord is a tube shaped bundle of nerves and tissues which is part of your central nervous system and runs from the base of your brain stem to the lower back and is also surrounded by cerebrospinal fluid and covered by your meninges.
Your spinal column also protects your spinal cord with shock absorbing spinal disks between each vertebra and the spinal cord also sends signals to your brain through nerve tracts that carry different types of sensations in different pathways.
The function of the spinal column is to provide the body with structural support and allow movement while also protecting your spinal cord.
The spinal cord is a bundle of nerves that connect the brain to the rest of your body and acts as a central axis of your body and enables flexibility and movement as well as posture by transferring weight from the trunk to your legs.
The 5 columns of the spine are the cervical spine, thoracic spine, lumbar spine, sacral spine and the coccygeal spine.
The cervical spine are the 7 bones in your neck, with the first vertebra that supports the skull.
The Thoracic spine is the 12 bones in your back area.
The lumbar spine is the 5 bones in your lower back area.
The Sacral spine are the 5 sacral bones which fuse into one bone in adulthood.
The Coccygeal spine is the four coccygeal bones which fuse into one bone in adulthood, though the number can vary from 5 to 3.
A column in the spinal cord is a column of bones which protect your spinal cord.
Your spinal column also contains the ligaments which connect your vertebrae together.