Possibilities for the Treatment of Spinal Injuries

Possibilities for the Treatment of Spinal Injuries

William Stevens Lanagan V
GSWLA at Tallwood High School

Possibilities for the Treatment of Spinal Injuries

Possibilities for the Treatment of Spinal Injuries

Injuries are a part of everyones lives, as well as birth defects. These can be anything from
minor pain to serious afflictions. One of the most dangerous places to be injured or have a defect in is
the spinal cord. The spinal cord is what connects your body to your brain. It is a highway of
information being sent to and from your brain by the nerves in your body. The spinal cord is split into
four regions the cervical, thoracic, lumbar, and sacral cords. The cervical cord is directly under the
brain stem and sends and receives information from the upper body. The thoracic cord is located below
the cervical cord and is heavily involved in the core and chest. The lumbar cord is above the sacral cord
both move signals from the lower body. The lumbar cord takes the front of the lower body including
the hips and the front of the foot. The sacral takes the rear of the lower body including the heel. Like all
parts of the body the spinal cord can be injured and/or have some sort of defect, but like all afflictions
of the body not all are created equal.

There are afflictions that cause paralysis in the patient, and there are afflictions in which there
are disruptions in the nervous system. When it comes to dealing with the spinal cord there is always a
chance to make a situation worse than it was previous to treatment. In recent years there have been
many advances in medicine and technology for the treatment of spinal cord injuries; however, the main
focus has been on giving those who lost their ability to walk, the chance to walk again with very little
attention given to people who are walking, but suffer from medical difficulties from those injuries. Due
to this disparity the treatments given to these individuals who walk is more focused on the management
of pain, and is less focused on finding a way to restore the spinal cord to its previous state where there
is no need for the management of pain.
The limitations of this paper are as follows. Firstly the primary reasoning of the paper is to
show how the treatment of all spinal injuries has been improved over the years. Secondly there is a

Possibilities for the Treatment of Spinal Injuries

secondary topic about the difference in treatment of people with completely paralyzed appendages and
those who still can walk and perform most normal acts. This statement is based on observations made
through out my mothers care over the course of her treatment for a spinal cord tumor. Lastly the worse
of the stated observations in this paper are about charities and not about actual persons in the medical
community.

In this paper there is an equal amount of qualitative and quantitative information in this paper. I
discussed heavily with my mother the treatments she was administered throughout the last fifteen
years. The talks with my mother provided me with various different ways to treat a spinal cord tumor,
as well as information on the way someone in her predicament feels and what they might do to seek
extra help. This talk also revealed that not every source that is willing to help people with spinal
injuries actually are only willing to help people who are paralyzed due to a spinal injuries. My main
source for the rest of my paper is various online news articles and medical journals. I visited various
amounts of university web sites to find the basic information about the spinal cord that is featured in
this paper.
Levels of Injuries
There are many different levels of injury that the spinal cord can sustain, and the higher up on
the spinal cord the more likely it will leave the person unable to take care of themselves. The spine is
divided into four sections, and these sections are the Cervical, Thoracic, Lumbar, and Sacral cords.
Injuries to the higher Cervical nerves can cause a person to be completely paralyzed, and the injured
person would most likely need 24 hour a day care. Injuries to the lower Cervical nerves will paralyze a
person, but they will still probably be able to move their arms and breath normally. A person with this
kind of injury will need assistance in daily activities, but they will likely be able to move around

Possibilities for the Treatment of Spinal Injuries

independently with the help of a powered wheelchair. Injuries to the Thoracic nerves will lead to the
injured person being unable to walk on their own, but they may be able to with the help of a brace and
they would be able to use a manual wheelchair. Injuries to the lower Thoracic nerves will lead to very
similar symptoms as damage to the upper Thoracic nerves; however, people with lower Thoracic
injuries will normally allow for more control over the injured persons torso. Lumbar nerve injuries will
result in partial paralysis in the hips and legs, but the person will most likely be able to walk with
braces. Lastly there are injuries to the Sacral nerves which only lead to some loss of control in the hips
and legs.

Treatments
There currently is no way to reverse spinal cord damage; however, Doctors are constantly trying
to research a way to achieve this ultimate goal of fully restoring the spinal cord to the way it was prior
to the injury. Treatment of spinal injuries are treated as soon as they are discovered or when they are
even believed to have happened. An example will be EMT placing a car accident victim in a rigid neck
brace to keep their spine from shifting. Most people with spinal cord injuries will be taken to into an
intensive care unit in the hospital where the scope of your injury will be evaluated, and the treatment
for your injury will begin. For an acute spinal injury an IV of methylprednisolone given within the first
eight hours will help by reducing some nerve damage and decrease any inflammation in the area of the
injury. The injured person will most likely be immobilized in their bed and will probably have surgery
to remove anything that may be hurting the spine. After these treatments a Doctor will look to help
prevent any other problems that may be caused by the initial injury. Rehabilitation is the next step after
the doctors have done all they could for the patient. Medications are typically subscribed to help
manage any ill effects caused by the spinal cord injury.

Possibilities for the Treatment of Spinal Injuries

New Treatments
Every day something new is always being discovered so its no surprise that there are always
someone trying to make the next breakthrough. This is especially true in the case of spinal cord injuries
as everyone wants to find a cure for paralysis. One of these possible cures is implementing stem cells
into the spinal cord. Trials being performed at the University of Miami Hospital have begun to show an
increase in their patience motor skills. Based on the results of a 6 month follow up appointment 4 of 6
patients in the trial showed an increase in their motor skills. This is a good sign because the patients
selected had a complete loss of motor skills under the point of their injuries. The patients also show an
increase in muscle strength over the course of their treatments. These results are the first showing any
improvements in the spinal cord after cellular transplant in the spinal cord.
The spine is a very important part of the human body, because without a spine a body will be
unable to function. The spine is split up into different sections with each individual disk being
referenced with a letter taken from the name of the section, and a number. The upper most section is
called the Cervical cord, and it goes from C1, at the base of the skull to, C8 at the shoulder. Next is the
Thoracic cord which starts at T1, right under C8, to T12 at about two thirds above the waist. Then there
is the Lumbar cord that starts at L1 and ends at L5 at the hip. Finally there is the Sacral cord which is
situated inside the hip area and goes from S1 to S5. These sections are curved to help absorb the shock
of walking upright. The spinal cord also houses the only connection your body has with the brain, and
that makes the spinal cord the most important part of the central nervous system. Keeping the spine
safe is very important as without it a person could do little more than breathe with the help of a
machine; however, everyday life, activities, and general unluckiness can lead to anyone having their
spine injured and/or born with a spinal deformity.
When the spine is injured a range of things can happen depending on where the spine was
injured and how bad the injury actually is. any injury sustained to the Sacral cord will most likely have

Possibilities for the Treatment of Spinal Injuries

the mildest of symptoms, because even at its worse a person would only lose some feeling in their
hip/leg area and lose some control over their bladder/bowels, but they could function better than most
anyone else injured anywhere else. Injuries to the Lumbar cord are next in terms of mildness. At the
worst functions of the hips and legs will be lost, but a patient may be able to walk with the help of a
brace. The Thoracic cord is the largest of the four sections and is the second worse area to be injured.
An injury to the Thoracic cord can cause paralysis in the legs, trunk, and sometimes the chest. Persons
with a Thoracic cord injury will have function in their arms so using a manual wheelchair is a
manageable task for them. Finally we have injuries to the Cervical cord which can cause complete
paralysis to the body forcing the injured person to need assistance to even breathe.
Injuries can happen to any part of the body and most can be treated pretty easily and healed
really well; however, it is not so simple with the spine. If you break your arm you may wear a cast for a
while, but if you hurt your spine and there is damage to the nerves a cast wont be able to set things
right. When there is nerve damage in the spine little can be done with our current medical knowledge,
so most patients are left with just having to cope with it. Our current medicine is just not enough, even
though we can help people who have lost legs to walk again we cant do the same with people that still
have their legs, and because of this there are many ideas being brought to the table to try and help solve
this problem.
One very interesting solution is the creation of a exoskeleton that could help someone with
paralysis to control their once immobile body parts. The HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb) robotic exosuit
is a very promising version of this idea. The HAL suit is supposed to be linked to the wearers nervous
system and is able to pick up on the faintest signals from the brain. This allows the patient to walk by
themselves as they would have normally prior to their injury. This is a very promising solution, and it
may be very useful as a therapy tool. Tests on wheelchair people show that they are able to walk short
distances with braces after training with the suit 5 days during a week for a 3 week period. The HAL

Possibilities for the Treatment of Spinal Injuries

suit began its development in Japan and is currently undergoing testing in Bochum, Germany.
One other possible treatment will be able to help anyone with any type of spinal injury. This
other treatment would be theoretically able to completely restore a spine to its pre-injury state.
Implanting stem cells into the spine is this possible wonder treatment. Stem cells are basically master
cells that divide into either more stem cells or specialized cells like blood cells, muscle cell, or even
brain cells. A lot of research is being done on stem cells to see how they can be used to heal parts of the
body that can heal themselves, as well as how to control the stem cells and keep them from dividing too
much or not enough. There is also some controversy on the use of stem cells because one type of stem
cell is only found in fetuses, but most of these stem cells (Embryonic stem cells) are only taken from
fetuses that were donated.
Due to the possibilities stem cells present it is only natural that some medical trials are taking
place to see just how they can help the body restore itself. One such trial being performed at the
University of Miami hospital is showing some promising statistics. The patients in this trial have
cervical spinal cord injury, so they are most likely barely able to operate a powered wheelchair. Six
months after the initial transplants 4of the 6 patients showed improvement in motor functions and
muscle strength to the point where the level of their injury was bumped down by 1 to 2 levels. This
showing of amazing improvement is the first evidence of a stem cell transplant increase muscle
strength and restore some function. This trial can be interpreted as a small taste of what may be to come
in the future.
With these treatments being very helpful to the portion of the community that have lost their
ability to walk, there are still others that suffer from some sort of spinal cord problem that does not
reduce them to a wheelchair. Stem cells can be useful to everyone, but the exoskeleton does not help
someone who is in pain because their body doesnt know what is going on, because their spine in
messed up to the point where it sends the brain the wrong signals. These sufferers of spinal cord

Possibilities for the Treatment of Spinal Injuries

injuries shouldnt be forgotten, they shouldnt just be prescribed large amounts of pain killers to ignore
their problems, they shouldnt be have to worry about other parents thinking they are drunk when they
try their very best to walk their child to the bus stop on the first day of school, They shouldnt have to
hear their child ask them that they cant lift him up like all the other parents, they shouldnt have to
worry about people bumping into them causing them pain, they shouldnt be unwilling to walk on a
beach,in tall grass, of snow because they will hurt because of it, and they shouldnt have to avoid being
sick because coughing or throwing up can hurt them more than just dying. These people with these
kinds of spinal injury deserve more, and they need more to be done to help them gain some normalcy in
a life filled with pain and loss.

Possibilities for the Treatment of Spinal Injuries

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Anatomy of the Spinal Cord (Section 2, Chapter 3) Neuroscience Online: An Electronic Textbook for
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Findings from University Hospital Yields New Data on Spinal Cord Injuries (Tracking trauma-induced
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Motor Improvement Seen in Patients with Cervical Spinal Cord Injury After Stem Cell Implantation |

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10

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