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Understanding the Devastating Impact of Spinal Cord Injuries

In the fast-paced rhythm of life, it’s easy to overlook the silent struggles faced by individuals living with spinal cord injuries (SCIs). Yet, behind closed doors, these injuries wield a profound impact, reshaping lives in unexpected ways. Imagine the sudden loss of mobility and independence—a reality for many living with SCIs. These injuries, caused by accidents, falls, or medical conditions, transcend physical limitations, affecting sensation, bodily functions, and mental well-being.

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Findings from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) have provided valuable insight into the descriptive epidemiology of diseases and injuries for many countries over time.

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SCI imposes a substantial and uneven macroeconomic burden, with profound implications for national productivity and fiscal resilience. Economic consequences are shaped not only by disease prevalence but also by institutional capacity and health system responsiveness.

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Spinal cord injuries have profound and lasting effects, disrupting both physical and neurological functions. Understanding these consequences is vital for patients, healthcare professionals, and researchers working towards improving outcomes for those affected.

Articles of Interest

Patient Voices: Spinal Cord Injury

Life after a spinal cord injury is filled with the challenge of accepting your injury, coping with your limitations and adjusting to an entirely new way of seeing the world.

Backboard and Collar Nightmares...

The idea that backboards and c-spine collars prevent spinal cord injuries came from level 3 evidence in the 1960’s and there has never been an RCT to prove this theory. In fact a Cochrane review on the topic in 2007 concluded that “the effect of pre-hospital spinal immobilisation on mortality, neurological injury, spinal stability and adverse effects in trauma patients remains uncertain” and that “the possibility that immobilisation may increase mortality and morbidity cannot be excluded”.

Device aids recovery of people with spinal injuries, trial finds

Improved strength, control and sensation from use of Arc-Ex device described as small but life-changing.

Emergency medicine: The need for speed

Although doctors have long known that rapid treatment helps recovery, Fehlings says it is only in the past 25 years that we have started to understand just how crucial time is. He says that “a shift in practice” is emerging, based on research showing that the damage from a spinal cord injury can be limited by early action.

He Lost His Sense of Touch in a Spinal Cord Injury. New Brain Implants Helped Restore It.

After a spinal cord injury left Keith Thomas paralyzed, an experimental “double neural bypass” helped him grasp objects, feed himself, and feel his dog’s fur again.

How new spinal injury treatments help some people to walk again

We still don’t know if this technology can lead to improvements in everyday activities. And it’s important to remember that motor function is only one of a host of symptoms experienced by those with spinal cord injury. In a survey of individuals with paraplegia, they said improvement of bladder and bowel control and restoration of sexual function was more important for their quality of life than being able to walk again. So while those who have suffered a spinal cord injury have reason to feel cautiously optimistic, there is still much work to be done in this area.

Injectable nanorobots may help heal spinal injuries

The tiny devices are fused with stem cells and respond to electromagnetic signals.

New spinal cord therapy helps paralyzed patients walk again

Three people regained leg movements after using a new type of treatment, the latest in a suite of results involving electrical stimulation.

New Surgical Techniques Help Relieve Pain from Spinal Injury

For spinal cord patients, conventional pain therapies frequently fail, so often doctors suggest the pain is “in their head.” But, Falci says, it's actually in their spinal cord. He resolves it with surgery.

Spinal Cord Injuries: Understanding the Impact and Causes

Spinal cord injuries can also result from medical conditions, complications from an illness, degeneration of the spine from arthritis or certain conditions that people are born with. Non-traumatic injuries often develop gradually over time, compared to the sudden onset of traumatic injuries.

The Changing Standard of Care for Spinal Immobilization

New guidelines suggest a more limited role for prehospital spinal immobilization based on increasing evidence that the practice often is not only unnecessary, but possibly harmful.

The world’s first spinal cord transplant has been performed in Russia

The world’s first human spinal cord transplant has been carried out in Russia. This is said to have involved removing a damaged segment of a person’s spinal cord, three years after the injury, and replacing it with a section from a brain-dead donor. Although the recipient is said to be doing well, the operation has drawn concern from some researchers, who question whether it will work and are concerned that it may even leave the individual worse off.

Therapy for spinal-cord injuries helping Coloradans regain mobility

Will I walk again? It's a question both patients and doctors ask...

We've got spirit, how bout you?

She still doesn’t know quite what went wrong, but she didn’t make it all the way around; she smacked her neck against the ground, skidding so hard that a piece of her blond ponytail ripped from her scalp. No one in the room realized how grave her injury was.

Yes there’s hope, but treating spinal injuries with stem cells is not a reality yet

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Resources

National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center

The UAB Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation is funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) to operate the National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center (NSCISC). NSCISC supports and directs the collection, management and analysis of the world's largest and longest spinal cord injury research database.

Spinal Cord Injury & Disorders

The VA’s Spinal Cord Injury & Disorders (SCI&D) system of care provides a coordinated life-long continuum of services for eligible veterans with spinal cord injury. This website is intended for veterans with spinal cord injury and disorder, their family members, and others.

Spinal Injuries Association

We are the national organisation of spinal cord injured people. We represent all of their interests, regardless of how the impairment occurred, or whether paralysis is full or partial. We support all those who are affected by spinal cord injury, including the family and friends of the individual.

Spinal Research

Spinal Research is the UK’s leading charity funding medical research around the world to develop reliable treatments for paralysis caused by a broken back or neck.

SpinalCord.com

SpinalCord.com has been created by Swope, Rodante, P.A. as a resource for patients of brain and spinal cord injuries and their families. Learn more about a new injury, locate a doctor or treatment center, or discover legal and financial relief to support you through this difficult time.

SpinalCure Australia

SpinalCure Australia was founded in 1994 with the sole aim of finding a cure for spinal cord injury through the promotion and funding of medical research. Twenty years ago many still believed that cure to be an impossible dream. The advances resulting from two decades of research have brought us to a time when a solution to this devastating condition is accepted as inevitable.

The Spinal Post

Your one time stop for spinal cord injury news, entertainment, and discussion.

United Spinal Association

United Spinal Association’s mission is to improve the quality of life of all people living with spinal cord injuries and disorders (SCI/D). We believe no person should be excluded from opportunity on the basis of their disability.

Wings for Life

Wings for Life organises international conferences every year to bring together leaders in research and medicine. The foundation also ensures that the scientists we fund publish the conclusions of their projects. These research findings appear in renowned journals and prevents replication of the same studies across the globe.

BrainandSpinalCord.org

We've helped brain and spinal cord injury survivors and their families recover millions for care and treatment.

elearnSCI.org

The mission of eLearnSCI.org is to improve the quality of lives of people living with spinal cord injury by disseminating awareness about spinal cord injury prevention and comprehensive management globally.

Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center

The Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center (MSKTC) summarizes research, identifies health information needs, and develops information resources to support the Model Systems programs in meeting the needs of individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI), spinal cord injury (SCI), and burn injury. - See more at: http://www.msktc.org/about#sthash.gXdHC1Oo.dpuf

SCI Action Canada

Based at McMaster University, SCI Action Canada is an ongoing, collaborative endeavour bringing together university-based researchers, knowledge mobilization specialists, support networks, service groups and community members focused on advancing physical activity, knowledge and participation among Canadians living with spinal cord injury.

The Turtle Walks

A Blog About Spinal Cord Injuries and the Road to Recovery...My name is Peter and on December 29th, 2009 I was in a car accident that shattered two vertebrae of my spine, leaving me paralyzed below the waist. I was able to get a toe wiggling and from there I've had significant leg function return, to the point where I am now walking using only an ankle brace. I'm continuing to improve but it is always a struggle.

American Spinal Injury Association

Its mission is: to promote and establish standards of excellence for all aspects of health care of individuals with spinal cord injury from onset throughout life. to educate members, other healthcare professionals, patients and their families as well as the public on all aspects of spinal cord injury and its consequences in order to prevent injury, improve care, increase availability of services and maximize the injured individual’s potential for full participation in all areas of community life...

Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation

The Reeve Foundation is dedicated to curing spinal cord injury by funding innovative research, and improving the quality of life for people living with paralysis through grants, information and advocacy.

Craig H Neilsen Foundation

We believe in hope. We trust in science. Since Craig H Neilsen Foundation was established in 2002, we have funded programs supporting spinal cord injury (SCI) research and rehabilitation.

Ekso Bionics

Ekso Bionics uses the power of smart exoskeleton technology machines to empower people. Our therapeutic devices can help stroke patients during rehabilitation learn to walk again and provide those with spinal cord injuries the chance to stand and walk.

European Multicenter Study about Spinal Cord Injury

An internationally recognized and scientifically successful clinical spinal cord injury network.

European Spinal Cord Injury Federation

Members of ESCIF are independent national organisations with their own statutes and whose main objective is to represent people with spinal cord injury in their country.

FacingDisability.com

We asked top spinal cord injury experts to focus on the subjects that people want to know about right away. We have over 400 answers to the important questions that come up when an injury is new and at its most bewildering

Harvard Health

Most spinal cord injuries occur in the area of the neck called the cervical region. Trauma can result from bruising to the spinal cord itself, loss of blood flow to the cord, or cuts in the cord. Spinal cord injuries are serious and can cause diminished strength, coordination, and sensation, as well as other functions such as bladder control. Spinal cord trauma in the upper cervical region can be life-threatening, as it can affect the muscles of breathing.

International Collaboration On Repair Discoveries

ICORD (International Collaboration On Repair Discoveries) is an interdisciplinary research centre focused on spinal cord injury. Our researchers are dedicated to the development and translation of more effective strategies to promote prevention, functional recovery, and improved quality of life after SCI.

International Spinal Cord Society

The ISCoS shall: -Serve as an international impartial, non-political and non-profit making association whose purpose is to study all problems relating to traumatic and non-traumatic lesions of the spinal cord. This includes causes, prevention, basic and clinical research, medical and surgical management, clinical practice, education, rehabilitation and social reintegration. This society will function in close collaboration with other national and international bodies, thereby encouraging the most efficient use of available resources...

Kennedy Krieger Institute

Kennedy Krieger Institute is an internationally recognized institution dedicated to improving the lives of individuals with disorders of the brain, spinal cord, and musculoskeletal system.

Leward

LifewardTM is your source for proven solutions that fundamentally improve quality of life by facilitating improved function and health in rehabilitation and daily life.

Miami Project To Cure Paralysis

The Miami Project’s Christine E. Lynn Clinical Trials Initiative is designed to take discoveries found to be successful in laboratory studies and fast track them to human studies, like our FDA approved Schwann cell transplantation trial. The Miami Project is well positioned and confident that we have the expertise, knowledge and drive to continue to navigate through the process and initiate new clinical trials.

Rick Hansen Foundation

The Rick Hansen Foundation unifies organizations and leaders to work in partnership towards positive change for a healthy and inclusive world, with a key focus of improving the lives of those with spinal cord injuries.

Shepherd Center

Shepherd Center specializes in medical treatment, research and rehabilitation for people with spinal cord injury and brain injury.

StatPearls

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a neurologic condition resulting from trauma or nontraumatic etiologies that disrupt motor, sensory, and autonomic pathways. Common causes include motor vehicle collisions, falls, malignancies, and degenerative disorders. Injuries are classified based on their level and completeness...