»
The Spinal Cord Injury Zone
»
Search The Spinal Cord Injury Zone
|
|
Search for anything within The Spinal Cord Injury Zone website.
|
» The Spinal Cord Injury Zone - News
08/22/2008 Two Oakdale men headed to Beijing for paralympics
Jon Rydberg and Dan James will be representing their hometown of Oakdale and their country by heading to Beijing this September to compete in the U.S. Paralympics.
This is Rydberg's second Paralympics and he will be competing in singles and doubles wheelchair tennis.
"It's one of the coolest things you can do," Rydberg said. "Representing your country, your state, everything like that. It's a whole package deal."
|
08/21/2008 Reeve Foundation Recruits Distinguished Stem-Cell Neurobiologist
The Salk Institute's Samuel L. Pfaff, Ph.D. - to its International Research ConsortThe Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation today announced it has expanded the work of its International Consortium on Spinal Cord Injury
to include a focus on the study of stem cells in injury and repair.
Samuel L. Pfaff, Ph.D., of The Salk Institute, who has demonstrated
expertise in stem cell biology and spinal cord expertise, has joined the Consortium as a Principal Investigator.
|
08/21/2008 Family, friends rally to help chef fight back from injury
It happened in an instant. Dave Hartung was driving home from work the
day after Christmas when a car darted from the shoulder of Interstate
97 and across two lanes to reach a ramp to U.S. 50.
The vehicle smashed his car. While describing the crash to state
troopers, Hartung now realizes, he was in shock. He went home to Severn
and only in a few hours did he realize he was in pain, he said.
At the hospital, doctors found that the accident had crushed four
vertebrae in Hartung's spine and partially severed his spinal cord.
|
08/20/2008 Ex-quadriplegic bikes to Tulsa
In a stop on a nationwide tour, he encourages others with disabilities.
Wiggling a single toe was the impossible goal Aaron Baker dreamed about achieving in 1999.
Nine years later and more than 1,500 miles into his trek, Baker is pedaling a specially made, three-wheel bicycle across the country to show others what it means to beat the impossible.
"I'm crazy enough to ride a bicycle all the way here from San Francisco," Baker said.
|
08/20/2008 Special needs players showcase their shots
The sun was shining, the balls were flying and the chairs were rolling yesterday at the Fanshawe Golf Course Parkside Nine.
It was the eighth annual Madame Lise Thibault Golf Tournament, a
three-person-per-team golf scramble for people with disabilities. The city donates the course -- the first in North America for people with disabilities -- for the day, Olizarevitch said.
The course is flat and the greens are built on firm soil to allow a wheelchair to drive over them, he said.
"There's no sand traps, no water, all on a 10-acre parcel of land."
|
» The Spinal Cord Injury Zone - Info
08/19/2008 Chondroitin Sulfate Proteoglycan May Have Many Roles In Spinal Cord Injury Repair
The proteoglycan chondroitin sulfate (CSPG) plays an important role not
just in the formation of the glial scar but also in the repair of
spinal cord injury, according to an article released on August 18, 2008
in the open-access journal PLoS Medicine.
In injuries to the central nervous system such as spinal cord injury,
the glial scar is formed in a similar manner to scars in other parts of
the body. However, while protecting the damaged area in many ways, it
simultaneously releases chemicals that inhibit further regeneration.
|
08/14/2008 Though grouped together, quadri- and tetraplegics are different
Both quadri- and tetra- mean
four. Naturally, most people would think that a quadriplegic and
tetraplegic can't move any of their four limbs. But there's more to it
than that.The
National Spinal Cord Injury Association, among others, group
tetraplegia and quadriplegia together. That disturbs me because my
doctors always said that tetraplegia is a more severe spinal cord
injury than quadriplegia. On Jan. 12, 1993, my brain stem was contused
and spinal cord severed. My injury doesn't even involve any vertebrae.Quadriplegics that I've heard about only have their spinal cords damaged.
|
08/11/2008 New U.S. Medicare Policy Encourages Healthier Approach to Bladder Management and Catheter Use
Coloplast
supports critical change in catheter guidelines giving consumers
choices, cutting healthcare costs and reducing exposure to bacteria People using intermittent catheters no longer need to re-use their
catheters due to a new Medicare policy effective April 1, 2008. The
change affects nearly 1 million individuals living with spinal cord
injury, multiple sclerosis and spina bifida, as well as those who have
other permanent conditions requiring bladder management or experience
urinary incontinence or retention.
Catheter re-use may be a key contributor to urinary tract
infections. With approximately 10 million urinary tract
infection-related doctor visits each year, the Medicare change is
an important step in reducing healthcare costs through preventive care
and lowering patient risks related to urinary catheterization.
|
07/30/2008 Published Study Shows Oxycyte Successfully Reduces Oxygen Shortages in a Spinal Cord Injury Model
Few therapies have consistently demonstrated effectiveness in
preserving oxygen delivery after spinal cord injury (SCI). The
researchers measured oxygen levels in rats in two studies to establish
a dose response curve. The pressure of oxygen levels dissolved in the
blood in spinal cord injury showed a profound drop from 21.4 to 10.4
mm Hg almost immediately post injury. In the relevant experiment, all
animals that received Oxycyte combined with 100% oxygen showed
significant improvement, with a mean increase in oxygen levels of 23.3
mm Hg. Only one saline-treated animal in the control group showed any
benefit. Oxygen values in the group treated with Oxycyte reached up to
six times the normal level.
|
06/30/2008 A BACTERIAL PARTNERSHIP
Basically, antibiotic development became the cornerstone in the establishment of the Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA). Like the hero in the Oscar-nominated movie Atonement, my great-uncle died due to infection from a wound he sustained charging a German machine-gun nest in World War I. If antibiotics had been available, he would have survived, and perhaps I would have met him.A decade later, future Nobel Laureate Alexander Fleming observed that bacterial growth was inhibited by a penicillin-generating mold. As a result of his discovery and the ensuing large-scale production of penicillin catalyzed by World War II's bloodshed, many soldiers wounded later in this war were able to live, including PVA founders. Since then, scientists have developed numerous antibiotics, which have greatly increased life expectancy after SCI.
|
» The Spinal Cord Injury Zone - Questions
09/22/2007 What is the spinal cord?
This may seem to be silly question but, until people get spinal cord
injury or know somebody who is, most pay little attention to their
spinal cords. Most people don’t know the different parts of the
spinal cord, what each part does, and how the spinal cord transmits
sensory and motor information. Many think that the spinal cord conducts
information like a telephone wire and the spinal cord can be fixed by
reconnecting it. Some people mistakenly believe that the spinal cord is
the vertebral column. While almost everybody knows that spinal cord
injury causes paralysis, many are not aware that the spinal cord also
controls the bladder and bowel, sexual function, blood pressure, skin
blood flow, sweating, and temperature regulation.
|
07/10/2007 What are the effects of SCI?
The effects of SCI depend on the type of
injury and the level of the injury. SCI can be divided into two types
of injury - complete and incomplete. A complete injury means that there
is no function below the level of the injury; no sensation and no
voluntary movement. Both sides of the body are equally affected. An
incomplete injury means that there is some functioning below the
primary level of the injury. A person with an incomplete injury may be
able to move one limb more than another, may be able to feel parts of
the body that cannot be moved, or may have more functioning on one side
of the body than the other. With the advances in acute treatment of
SCI, incomplete injuries are becoming more common.
|
06/05/2007 What is Spinal Cord Injury?
Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) is damage to the spinal
cord that results in a loss of function such as mobility or feeling.
Frequent causes of damage are trauma (car accident, gunshot,
falls, etc.) or disease (polio, spina bifida, Friedreich's Ataxia,
etc.). The spinal cord does not have to be severed in order for a loss
of functioning to occur. In fact, in most people with SCI, the spinal
cord is intact, but the damage to it results in loss of functioning.
SCI is very different from back injuries such as ruptured disks, spinal
stenosis or pinched nerves.
|
05/20/2007 What is the spinal cord and the vertebra?
The spinal cord is about 18 inches long and
extends from the base of the brain, down the middle of the back, to
about the waist. The nerves that lie within the spinal cord are upper
motor neurons (UMNs) and their function is to carry the messages back
and forth from the brain to the spinal nerves along the spinal tract.
The spinal nerves that branch out from the spinal cord to the other
parts of the body are called lower motor neurons (LMNs). These spinal
nerves exit and enter at each vertebral level and communicate with
specific areas of the body. The sensory portions of the LMN carry
messages about sensation from the skin and other body parts and organs
to the brain. The motor portions of the LMN send messages from the
brain to the various body parts to initiate actions such as muscle
movement.
|
02/27/2007 Why is my spinal cord important?
Your Spinal Cord is important because without a spinal cord your brain and your body couldn't communicate with each other. The spinal cord is the pathway for impulses
from the body to the brain, and from the brain
to the body. These impulses are different signals our brain sends and receives from our bodies.
|
»
What is Spinal Cord Injury?
|
|
Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) is damage to the spinal
cord that results in a loss of function such as mobility or feeling.
Frequent causes of damage are trauma (car accident, gunshot, falls,
etc.) or disease (polio, spina bifida, Friedreich's Ataxia, etc.). The
spinal cord does not have to be severed in order for a loss of
functioning to occur. In fact, in most people with SCI, the spinal cord
is intact, but the damage to it results in loss of functioning. SCI is
very different from back injuries such as ruptured disks, spinal
stenosis or pinched nerves.
A person can "break their back or
neck" yet not sustain a spinal cord injury if only the bones around the
spinal cord (the vertebrae) are damaged, but the spinal cord is not
affected. In these situations, the individual may not experience
paralysis after the bones are stabilized.
|
»
Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury
|
|
The term "spinal cord injury" refers to any injury of the neural (pertaining to nerves) elements within the spinal canal. 
SCI can occur from either trauma or disease to the vertebral column or the spinal cord itself. Most spinal cord injuries are the result of trauma to the vertebral column. These injuries can affect the spinal cord's ability to send and receive messages from the brain to the body systems that control sensory, motor, and autonomic function below the level of injury. Depending on the location and severity of the injury, the body can be affected in a myriad of ways. Typically, the nerves above the injury site continue to function as they always have and the nerves below the site do not.
|
No articles found.
» Spinal Cord Injury Chat Room
|
The Spinal Cord Injury Zone web site (