This
website, created by students as part of the Undergraduate Behavioral Neuroscience Resource Project run by Professor Eric P. Wiertelak at Macalester College, is intended to provide accurate
and up-to-date information on the physiological damage that results from spinal
cord injury, as well as the current state of drug treatments and regeneration
research. Each section builds upon
the information in the previous sections, though the pages may be viewed in any
order.
- Home: excerpt
from Hentz, of Things not Seen, and statistics for contextualizing
the information this website presents.
- The Spinal Cord:
an overview of normal spinal cord structure and function.
- Primary Damage:
an explanation of immediate physical damage to the spinal cord.
- Secondary Damage:
an explanation of cell death and axonal damage that occurs hours to days
after injury as a result of immune system response, oxidation, and excitotoxicity.
- Drug Treatments:
a review of current pharmaceutical interventions (including methylprednisolone,
lazaroids, thyrotropin-releasing hormone)
that may reduce the effects of seconday damage.
- Regeneration:
a review of current understanding of neural cell growth and the
possibilities of central nervous system regeneration.
- Links & References: a list of websites, articles, and books to help you find further
information, including a reliable medical dictionary.
Thank you for
visiting our website. We hope it
helps answer some of your questions about spinal cord injury, as well as
prompts you to ask new ones.
- The Authors
Jacob Beckley,
Elizabeth Nelson, Kate Saylor, and Anna Sutheim
After we reached the hospital, Hentz was hurried to the X-ray room. He
laughed and joked with the young women in attendance; but even though they
smiled I sensed their tension as they made the pictures. The doctor in the
X-ray room studied the pictures when they were developed. He didn't speak to
us, and when I asked what the pictures showed he said, "Your son's neck is
broken." I knew that such an injury was nearly always fatal.
I asked, "Is there a chance for him to live?"
"Oh, yes," he answered.
When Hentz left the X-ray room he was taken to a semi-private room
already occupied by a young policeman whose leg had been crushed. Hentz was not
taken off the ambulance stretcher because the doctor didn't want him moved. He
did not seem to be suffering; but before long a nurse came in and gave him a
hypodermic.
The orthopedic surgeon was in the operating room and couldn't see
Hentz, but he sent his assistant to examine him. I wondered what it meant when
he asked Hentz to move his legs. Hentz couldn't move them. The doctor asked him
to move his right arm. Hentz couldn't; but he could move his left arm a little,
though he could not feel the pin pricks the doctor made all over his body. I
didn't know the meaning of the pin. How many times later on I would watch
doctors pin pricking my son's body and cry out to God to let him feel it!
Source: Houser, Harriet Hentz. Hentz,
of Things not Seen. New
York: The Macmillan Company, 1955.
There are
247,000 people living with spinal cord injury in the USA, with 11,000 new cases
per year. Almost 80% of injuries
occur in males. The most common
cause of spinal cord injury is motor vehicle accidents (50%), followed by falls
(24%), violence (11%), and sports (9%).
Injuries result in complete quadriplegia/tetraplegia in 22% of cases,
incomplete tetraplegia in 34% of cases, complete paraplegia in 25% of cases,
and incomplete paraplegia in 18% of cases; complete recovery occurs in 1% of
cases. Depending upon age at
injury and severity of injury, lifetime medical costs and other costs related
to the injury may cost anywhere from $435,000 to $2,700,000. Life expectancies are significantly
reduced for people with spinal cord injury, and the most common causes of death
related to SCI complications are renal failure, pneumonia, pulmonary emboli,
and septicemia.
Source: National
Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center, Birmingham, Alabama website, 2004.
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