Your spinal cord is a line of bones, vertebrae, and nerves located in the middle of your back and is one of the most important parts of your central nervous system. However, your spinal cord is relatively unprotected and prone to injury if you are not careful. In most cases, an acute spinal cord injury stems from physical trauma directly to the spinal cord or from a hard fall where you land on top of it.
When this happens, it is possible to break, fracture, or tear the spinal cord, resulting in a devastating injury. While some spinal cord injuries are more serious than others, they all require immediate medical attention. Some acute spinal cord injuries, such as tears or extensive fractures, can result in paralysis or even death. The exact treatment for acute spinal cord injuries will vary depending on the extent and location of the damage but typically includes the following options.
Regardless of what type of spinal cord injury you have suffered or fear to have suffered, it is essential to seek emergency medical attention as quickly as possible. Even if you feel fine right now, some spinal cord injuries take time to manifest and reveal their symptoms fully.
Therefore, it is essential to have a doctor check your status and diagnose the extent of the damage. That way, they can determine what type of treatment plan is right for you and provide the best chance of making a full recovery.
Most spinal cord injuries will cause some degree of inflammation. In order to determine the extent of the damage, it is necessary to reduce inflammation so that your doctor can get a clear view of what is going on. To do this, they will likely prescribe corticosteroids, such as Prednisone and Budesonide.
Inflammation can also mitigate and worsen your spinal cord injury symptoms. Therefore, corticosteroids are sometimes all you will need to recover from a low-grade or mild spinal cord injury.
In addition to medications to reduce inflammation, the first course of spinal cord injury treatment is to stabilize your back. Stabilization can keep your condition from worsening or from developing additional complications. This is important with all spinal cord injuries, but especially for partial tears and fractures. Stabilization is meant to keep you from twisting, bending, and doing other actions that could worsen your condition.
Unless you have sustained a very mild spinal cord injury, there is a good chance you will require surgery to make a full recovery. Spinal cord surgery is done for several reasons, including the following.
Surgery is also the best treatment option to fully repair your spine following a moderate to serious fracture or tear. However, surgery has its limitations, and no amount of repair work can fix certain spinal cord injuries, such as complete tears.
Finally, most acute spinal cord injuries will require at least some degree of physical rehabilitation. Rehabilitation is intended to aid you in your recovery as well as to teach you how to deal with permanent damage that results in movement and mobility limitations. Additionally, counselling may be necessary to help you deal with any depression or anxiety that results from your injury.
While these treatments can help you recover from a mild to moderate acute spinal cord injury, some injuries cause irreversible damage or death. Therefore, it is important to seek medical attention as quickly as possible if you suspect you have sustained a spinal cord injury.