What is Nontraumatic Spinal Cord Injury?
Any damage to the
spinal cord that has not been caused by a major trauma may led to Nontraumatic Spinal Cord Injury. It occurs when spinal cord has been damaged in other ways
such as infection, loss of blood supply, compression by a cancer or through
slow degeneration of the spinal bones (vertebrae) such as in osteoarthritis.
The spinal cord acts as
a connector between the brain and the body; the brain sends signals out through
nerves that run down the spinal cord, and from there other nerves go out into
the body. These control things like movement of muscles, but also other
functions such as sweating, urination and defecation. The body also sends
signals up through the spinal cord to the brain via other nerves giving
information about touch, temperature, position and pain. The brain can no
longer send or receive information to or from the parts of the body if spinal
cord gets injured. In a nontraumatic spinal injury, something has happened that
has stopped the connection between spinal cord and brain.
Causes
Causes of NTSCI can be
divided into five categories:
Vascular: This makes up
about 25% of all NTSCI and these causes are due to things that involve blood
and the blood vessels.
Neoplastic (Cancerous):
This makes up another 25% of all NTSCI. Around 5% of all cancers can lead to
spinal cord compression, either from local cancers in the bone or cord or
having spread (metastasised) from another location. The most common cancers
that spread to the spine are lung, breast, prostate, lymphoma, thyroid or
melanoma.
Inflammatory and Infections: These account for about
20% of all NTSCI injuries. Damage is from big masses of inflammatory cells or
localised areas of infection.
Degenerative: These conditions are due to general
breakdown due to wear and tear or other damaging process occurring to the bones
and accounts for about 18% of all NTSCI.
Other: There are also many other conditions that
cause NTSCI, and these make up the remaining 12% of cases.
Neurological:
Transverse Myelitis
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Friedreich’s Ataxia
Multiple Sclerosis
Some genetic and metabolic diseases
Problems arising from birth or through early
development:
Cerebral Palsy
Spina Bifida
Toxins and medications:
Methotrexate
Cytosine Arabinoside
Radiation
Treatment
The main treatment for
patients with NTSCI is rehabilitation in a major hospital or other main health
centre. This is done somewhere that specialises in rehabilitation of NTSCI, and
this is often joined with specialists in traumatic spinal injury into a ‘spinal
care unit’.
In rehabilitation there
are several key aspects. These include education about coping with the injury
and prevention of complications, specialised wheelchair and seating
prescription and bladder training. This will be combined with physiotherapy
designed to keep the muscles working and other treatments to make patients as
independent as possible.
The Spinal Cord Injury Program at AVA Rehabilitation Center offers the most comprehensive
rehabilitation program.
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