Week 6: Discussion Pathophysiology

Please describe an example of both a primary and secondary spinal cord injury.

Our discussion this week pertains to Spinal Cord Injuries. Primary spinal cord injury involves damage to vertebral or neural tissues from compression, traction, or shearing forces. Secondary spinal cord injury is related to ischemia, excitotoxicity, inflammation, edema, oxidative damage, and activation of necrotic and apoptotic cell death; it begins within minutes after injury and continues for weeks.

Assignment Instructions:

Some learners will use the same injury, such as a fall off of a horse.  Describe how the patient experienced both primary and secondary injuries. Be sure to describe symptoms, implications, and testing that helped clinicians to classify the injury into these categories.