Levels of Spinal Cord Injuries (Nursing)

00:01 Now the second criteria was the levels of injury.

00:04 So let's talk about the skeletal level of injury.

00:06 That's the vertebra that has the most damage to the bones and ligaments.

00:11 So the skeletal level of injury will be the vertebra that has the most damage to the bones and ligaments.

00:18 Now, the neurologic level of injury is another level that we look at.

00:22 That's the lowest segment of the spinal cord with normal sensory and motor function on both sides of the body.

00:30 So we've got the skeletal level and the neurological level.

00:34 Now tetraplegia was formerly known as quadriplegia, but you'll hear many people speaking it as tetraplegia now.

00:42 It's paralysis of all four extremities.

00:46 If you look at the graphic that's why he is green from the neck down, that represents paralysis.

00:53 Now, these are from cervical spinal cord injuries, remember those are the vertebra that - they're very at the top of your spinal cord.

00:59 So the degree of arm impairment depends on the level of the actual cervical injury.

01:04 So, C4 would likely have relatively less impairment than C3 or higher.

01:11 And all is individual, depends on that patient.

01:14 But just as a general rule, if I had a C4 injury, would likely have a little bit less impairment than someone who had C3 which is higher and would be worse.

01:25 Paraplegia response - paralysis and loss of sensation in the legs.

01:32 So you got it from right across the middle.

01:34 The hands may not work very well, also the legs will be paralyzed.

01:38 Thoracic, lumbar or sacral spinal cord injuries can end in paraplegia.

01:43 Now, how much or how significant the impairment is depends on the actual specific level of the injury.

01:50 T6 paraplegia is paralysis below the chest. L1 paraplegia is paralysis below the waist.

01:58 So I've got an example for you there.

02:00 Looking at the graphic, which level of paraplegia is this? Is it T6 or L1? Right, it's L1. It's paralysis below the waist.