Post by DJ on Jul 4, 2013 10:23:23 GMT -8
All information sourced from here
Stabilization
Once a person is injured, the first priority is to stabilize the patient's breathing, blood pressure and spinal column (in most cases using a back board and a cervical neck collar). A patient with a suspected SCI will most likely be brought to or moved to the nearest Level 1 Trauma Center, which provides the highest level of surgical care to trauma patients, with a full range of specialists and equipment available 24 hours a day.
During the early days of hospitalization, a variety of medications may be used to control the extent of the damage to the spinal cord, alleviate pain, treat infections, and other issues related to the injury. Patients may be sedated and put into traction to prevent further damage. Some other types of traction techniques are metal bracing attached to weights or a body harness, a halo to prevent the head from moving, or a rigid neck collar.
Neuroprotection
These therapies, also called neuroprotective therapies, aim to stop or reduce the immediate responses (such as swelling) to the injury that may further spinal cord damage. Methylprednisolone is a steroid drug sometimes used in the first few hours after an injury; it is intended to reduce inflammation and improve recovery but there is no clear evidence to support this. Still, it is commonly used though it may not be appropriate in all cases.
Therapeutic hypothermia (spinal cord cooling) is a medical treatment that lowers the body temperature in order to protect the cells in the body from damage after a traumatic brain or spinal cord injury, stroke or cardiac event. Body temperature can be lowered by invasive methods, using catheters filled with saline to cool a patient's blood as it leaves the heart, thus lowering the temperature of the whole body. Non-invasive techniques use special blankets that have cold water running through them. These blankets may be combined with ice packs or cold fans in order to achieve more rapid temperature decline.
There have been media reports that cooling is beneficial. According to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, there is currently no published data that shows that SCI patients who are treated with therapeutic hypothermia improve compared to others who are not treated using this method. The use of local therapeutic hypothermia at the time of surgery appears safe but no criteria for treatment guidelines have been established. Currently, there is not enough evidence available to recommend for or against therapeutic hypothermia with traumatic spinal cord injury.
