What are the treatments for spinal cord injuries?

Spinal cord injury can cause great harm to the body. Some patients may also experience severe sensory impairment below the segment or in the lower limbs. Spinal cord injury is a relatively serious disease that requires early professional treatment for patients. First of all, the patient's psychology must be properly understood and accepted, because many patients with spinal cord injury cannot accept this situation and are prone to have thoughts of suicide. There are also multiple steps in the treatment of spinal cord injury, such as first giving the patient relevant ideological education, and then conducting physical therapy, electrotherapy, hydrotherapy and other methods to stimulate the patient's nerves and cells.

Spinal cord injury is the most serious complication of spinal column injury, which often leads to severe functional impairment of the limbs below the injured segment. Spinal cord injury not only causes serious physical and psychological harm to the patient himself, but also imposes a huge economic burden on the entire society.

1. Ideological education: The injured person suddenly becomes a disabled person from a healthy person in an instant, and the psychological trauma is extremely serious. During the treatment and recovery period, patients are often worried, pessimistic and disappointed because there are not many therapies, the effects are slow and the treatment course is long. Medical staff must work together with family members to do ideological work, mobilize the patient's subjective initiative to fight disability and reduce disability to the lowest level.

2. Physical therapy:

(1) Massage: The technique should be gentle, and massage should be performed on various parts of the limbs from far to near. The purpose is to prevent muscle atrophy and joint stiffness, improve local blood circulation, and promote lymph return. Massaging, rubbing and deep pressing with your palms in the direction of gastrointestinal motility can promote gastrointestinal motility and aid digestion. Massaging along the direction of colon peristalsis can promote defecation; massaging above the pubic bone can promote urination. For lower limb massage, start from the toes, followed by flexion and extension of the ankle, knee and hip joints, followed by adduction, abduction and elevation of the hip joint. Place one heel on the opposite knee and then slide down the calf to the ankle. When massaging the upper limbs, you should passively flex and extend the fingers, make fists, and assist in the activities of the wrist, elbow, and shoulder joints. When performing passive movements on spastic limbs, you must be patient and proceed slowly, and avoid being rough, so as to avoid soft tissue injury, bleeding, and ectopic bone formation in the future.

(ii) Electrotherapy: For patients with flaccid paralysis, the application of induction electrotherapy can prevent muscle atrophy and fiber degeneration, and can improve muscle nutritional status and keep muscles functional. Because electrotherapy is ineffective for patients with spastic paralysis, it should not be used.

(3) Hydrotherapy: Hot water bath helps to stretch tendons, muscles and ligaments, improve joint mobility, reduce spasms and make tissues softer.

3. Functional exercise: After the fracture heals, depending on the condition of the patient, with the assistance of bed frames, braces, crutches and other equipment, strengthen the exercise so that the patient can sit up, stand, or even walk.