Injuries can be frightening ordeals. This is even more true for injuries that involve spines. Spine injuries can affect your ability to walk, move, control the bladder, feel pressure, heat or cold, as well as breathe easily. These changes can drastically change the way you live. What’s worse, these physical effects are just the beginning of the problems that spine injuries cause. Spinal cord damage could permanently disable you. You wouldn’t be able to go to work, play your favorite sport, take care of your children, or clean up after yourself. This debilitating scenario is enough to push anyone to mental and emotional despair.
A spinal cord injury is caused by damage to the spinal cord itself or to the vertebrae, ligaments, or spinal column discs that surround it. When the spinal cord is cut or penetrated, traumatic spinal injuries may occur. This can also happen if there is a severe blow to the body due to a fracture, crash, dislocation, or vertebrae compression. Patients may experience persistent bleeding, swelling, and inflammation days and weeks after the initial spine injury. The fluid that can accumulate in and around the spinal cord can also cause further damage.
Due to their lack of strength and fragility, we often assume that the elderly and children are more prone to spinal cord injuries. This is actually far from the truth. A full 80% of spinal damage sufferers are actually healthy males between the age of 15 and 30. This is because men in this age demographic are most likely to do physically taxing and potentially risky activities, such as fighting, contact sports, and other dangerous tasks.
Here are a few of the common causes of spinal cord injuries that we see at the Spine Center of Texas:
- Auto accidents
- Falls
- Violence
- High contact sports, such as football, hockey, and wrestling
- Alcohol and drug abuse
- Diseases, such as cancer, osteoporosis, and arthritis
If you or your loved one is suffering from a spinal cord injury, choose Spine Center of Texas. We house Texas’s top spine specialists who can perform a variety of minimally invasive surgical spine procedures.
