Spinal Cord Injury - Management

Management

Modern trauma care includes a step called clearing the cervical spine, where a person with a suspected injury is treated as if they have a spinal injury until that injury is ruled out. The objective is to prevent any further spinal cord damage. People are immobilized at the scene of the injury until it is clear that there is no damage to the highest portions of the spine. This is traditionally done using a device called a long spine board and hard collar.

Once at a hospital and immediate life-threatening injuries have been addressed, they are evaluated for spinal injury, typically by x-ray or CT scan. Complications of spinal cord injuries include neurogenic shock, respiratory failure, pulmonary edema, pneumonia, pulmonary emboli and deep venous thrombosis, many of which can be recognized early in treatment and avoided. SCI patients often require extended treatment in an intensive care unit.

Techniques of immobilizing the affected areas in the hospital include Gardner-Wells tongs, which can also exert spinal traction to reduce a fracture or dislocation.

One experimental treatment, therapeutic hypothermia, is used but there is no evidence that it improves outcomes. Maintaining mean arterial blood pressures of at least 85 to 90 mmHg using intravenous fluids, transfusion, and vasopressors to ensure adequate blood supply to nerves and prevent damage is another treatment with little evidence of effectiveness.