Each year in Europe, at least 7500 people suffer such serious damage to their spinal cords that they suffer permanent complications. Most of them, about 70 %, are men. The damage is usually the result ether of a non-traumatic incident or of a trauma such as an automobile or motorcycle accident. It can also be the result of falling from a high place.
Spinal cord damage means damage to the spinal cord itself, sometimes in combination with damage to the nerve roots in the spinal cord's lowest section.
The spinal cord is fundamental for your body
1. Cervical spine
2. Thoracic spine
3. Lumbar spine
4. Sacral spine
Your spinal cord is about as thick as a finger and is very delicate. It lies in a fluid-filled canal in your vertebral column, the spine itself. The spinal cord contains cells that send and receive signals from your entire body. Thanks to these signals, we can, among other things, move our arms, legs and other muscles in the body. If your spinal cord is damaged, these signals' ability to travel back and forth through the spinal cord is impaired. The interplay between signals and your will's control of your body's muscles changes and deteriorates. At worst, this contact ceases completely.
Level and extent are decisive
There are different types of damage to the spinal cord. The higher up in the spinal cord an injury occurs, the more muscles are affected. In the case of parapegia, the spinal cord is so damaged that the legs are affected. In the case of tetraplegia, both arms and legs are affected This paralysis can be more or less comprehensive.
Complete spinal cord damage means that the spinal cord has been completely cut off. No signals can go either to or fro, which means that all feeling and ability to move is gone below the point of injury.
If the damage is incomplete, you experience a certain loss of the ability to control your muscles. But some signals will go through.
Your body's ability to empty your bladder and bowels is controlled by signals from nerve cells in the spinal cord. That is why damage to your spinal cord affects your ability to empty both your bladder and your bowels.