This is where there is a direct injury to the spinal cord. This can happen during a fall (falling off a horse without a helmet, or work injury when falling off a ladder and landing wrong), car accident, gunshot wounds, sports injuries, spinal hematoma, infection, radiation, neoplasm, interruption of blood supply to the spinal cord.
Levels of Spinal Cord Injuries
The higher up in the spinal cord, the more symptoms that are experienced. The spinal cord has 5 different sections; Cervical (neck), Thoracic (ribs connect to the spine), Lumbar (lower back), Sacrum (connects the spine to the pelvis), Coccyx (tailbone). There are a total of 31 pairs of spinal nerves and 33 vertebrae in adults. In babies, the sacrum and coccyx have multiple vertebrae that fuse shortly after birth.
If the injury happens to the spinal cord above the 1st thoracic vertebrae, it will affect the limbs, trunk, and pelvic organs. This will cause the person to have quadriplegia. If the spinal cord is damaged too high at this level it may cause death.
If the injury happens to the spinal cord below the 2nd thoracic vertebrae, it will affect the lower limbs and possibly the trunk or pelvic organs. This causes the person to have paraplegia.
Treatment for Spinal Cord Injuries
Treatment will depend on which spinal injury you have, as well as how comfortable you are in different positions if they are possible. This means that there is a chance that the massage will have to be done in the wheelchair that the person has, and allow for pillowing on a table so you can lean forward to access different body areas. If the treatment is done at the person’s home there is a possibility that if there is a lift present that the massage will be able to be done with the person laying down, but is only able to happen if it is safe to do so, (this is more the case for people who are quadriplegic. Massage therapists, unless they have additional training, are unable to use lifts and require additional health care professionals to be present to aid with transferring).
Treatments will start slowly, depending on the goals that you have. This can range from helping with decreasing pain and swelling to increasing tissue and joint health. Massage will also be used to help with full-body awareness (after time the spinal cord can heal depending on how bad the injury to the nerve is, thus doing full-body awareness can help the sensory portion), help the respiratory muscles, and aid in bowel movements, and treating postural and muscular imbalances, decrease spasticity and increase range of motion.
In the areas where there is no feeling, massage will not be done as a deep tissue. This is so no tissue damage will be done, this also includes when using hydrotherapy to keep from burning or freezing the skin.