What is Spinal Injury Care?

What is Spinal Injury Care?

Spinal Injury Care is designed for those who have suffered an injury to their spine or spinal cord. Spinal injury care often involves one or more fully-qualified nurses and specially-trained carers, but the level of care differs from person to person, based on their individual needs.

In a lot of cases, spinal injury care involves a full time, live-in carer to assist with everyday activities such as moving around, dressing, cooking and cleaning. This enables your loved one to remain in their own home with their own independence.

How to care for someone with a spinal cord injury

If a loved one has suffered a spinal cord injury, care goes much further than just their physical needs. The mental and emotional effects of a serious injury can be severe and last for a long time. Our Spinal Injury carers are specially trained in the field of spinal cord injury, and understand how such injury can impact the rest of someone’s life as well as those around them. At Abbots Care, we create bespoke care plans with your loved one and their family in mind, and we involve you in the planning of care from the very start.

The different types of Spinal Injuries

Spinal cord injuries are typically split into two types; incomplete spine injuries and complete spine injuries.

Incomplete spinal cord injuries are more common and are a result of the spinal cord being compressed or damaged in a way that limits the brain’s ability to send messages to the parts of the body that are located below the injury.

The effects of an incomplete spinal cord injury vary from person to person depending on the severity of the injury. Some injuries may result in only a slight reduction in motor function, but some can result in the loss of sensation and function of limbs or triplegia (the loss of the use of both legs and one arm).

Complete spinal cord injuries are viewed as more serious, as they usually have more severe effects. A complete spinal cord injury can lead to paraplegia or tetraplegia, depending on where the injury is located. 

Spinal injuries and their consequences can also vary depending on the location of the injury, with doctors usually grouping injuries into four categories based on the sections of the spine.

Cervical Injury

An injury to the part of the spine located in the neck and head.

Thoracic Injury

An injury to the part of the spine located in the chest and mid-back.

Lumbar Injury

An injury to the part of the spine located in the lower back.

Sacral Injury

An injury to the part of the spine located in the pelvic area.

What is Paraplegia?

Paraplegia is a form of paralysis that typically affects the function of the lower body. It usually occurs as a result of a spinal injury in the thoracic, lumbar or sacral section of the spine that prevents the brain’s signals reaching the legs, feet and sometimes the lower abdomen and pelvic area.

Someone diagnosed with paraplegia may experience the inability to voluntarily move their legs or feet, a loss of sensation in the lower body, a loss of bladder control, and they may suffer from bouts of pain or phantom pain.

What is Tetraplegia?

Tetraplegia, or quadriplegia, is a form of paralysis that results in the loss of control of the upper and lower parts of the body. Tetraplegia affects the arms, hands, fingers, legs, feet, chest and abdomen. 

The type of spinal injury that causes tetraplegia is often located in the cervical section of the spine, as it inhibits messages sent from the brain reaching either the arms or legs.

Acute Spinal Injury care

If you have a loved one who requires spinal injury care, we’re here to help. At Abbots Care, we have over 25 years of experience in providing professional home care services. We were recognised as one of the Top 20 Home Care Providers in the UK 2020, and we were also awarded an Outstanding rating by the CQC for our home care services, so you know your loved one is in capable hands.

Our spinal injury specialist carers have been expertly trained to help your loved one manage their injury in the comfort and familiarity of their own home, helping to preserve their independence.

Learn about our specialist care services or get in touch for a quick chat about how we can help.