The greatest thing a patient living with a spinal cord injury can do for themselves is keep up an active, healthy lifestyle. Maintaining regular exercise, proper nutrition and making sure to monitor regular health indicators like blood pressure & heart rate are just as important as they were before the injury—if not more.
Healthy living will do more than just keep the patient happy & healthy physically & mentally. It will also do something critically important for continued quality of life: warn caretakers about potential health complications from spinal cord injury. For more information on healthy living with a spinal cord injury, visit our SCI Resource Library.
Health Risks Post-Spinal Cord Injury
People with spinal cord injuries, especially traumatic SCIs, are unfortunately at risk of developing further health issues after the initial injury. Some health issues, like increased risk of osteoporosis, are things that most people who have suffered & healed from a serious injury must keep in mind. Other more serious issues, however, can become risks simply because a spinal cord injury and its aftereffects deal with a very sensitive & crucial part of the human body.
Muscular & Joint Difficulties
Resuming daily activities after an SCI which has left a patient partially or completely immobile means having to adjust the way those daily activities are done. A person with little lower body control who would have once depended on their legs to get around may now depend on their upper body strength instead. Though they may still enjoy the same level of independence post-injury, especially with the help of assistive technology, the way they physically move from place to place has changed, and therefore the stress & workload on their body has changed as well.
This change can lead to:
- Joint stiffness, aches & pains
- Osteoperosis & osteoarthritis
- Weakening of unused muscles
- Overuse & tearing of muscle or ligament
- Skin tears & pressure sores
The best way to manage these after-effects is to maintain a regular exercise routine & consult your doctor. Potentially, ergonomic adjustment of the patient’s equipment will be needed to reduce strain.
Breathing & Immunization Difficulties
Adjusting to your new means of movement can also cause changes to your immune and respiratory systems. Especially for patients in wheelchairs, sitting for long periods of time with shoulders rounded forward—a problem known as “tech neck” or kyphosis which many people face regardless of ability—can compress the chest cavity, shorten chest muscles, and reduce lung capacity.
When combined with preexisting spinal injuries, this further twisting of the spine out of alignment can also cause:
- Sensitivity to chest infections like pneumonia
- Loss of lung & chest wall compliance
- Increased likelihood of sleep apnea
- Less effective immune response
- Higher risk of illness
To keep respiratory illness & breathing difficulties away, it’s important to build a regular activity and stretching routine to combat further misalignment of the spine. It is also important to see your doctor regularly for respiratory assessment and to keep up with immunizations, especially for the flu and other sicknesses that rest heavily in the chest or could lead to pneumonia.
Also, if it applies to you, stop smoking: smoking will not only hurt your respiratory capabilities, it also puts a large amount of stress on your already-stressed out immune system, which can have serious negative results to your long-term health.
Blood Clots, Pulmonary Embolism, & Stroke
As humans age, we become more and more susceptible to blood clots. Vein walls harden and thicken with age, narrowing the pathways through which blood cells flow. When blood clots form, these narrow passages become blocked and the flow of oxygen-giving blood to important organs like your heart, lungs or even brain is interrupted.
People with spinal cord injuries are more likely to form blood clots than most. While the most likely time for blood clots to form is during the patient’s acute hospital stay, deep-vein thrombosis (DVT), a kind of blood clot that forms in the lower extremities and runs the risk of travelling upward, remains common for those with spinal injuries.
Because these DVT blockages can break free of the leg vein walls and end up blocking blood flow to the lungs (causing a pulmonary embolism) or brain (causing a stroke), it’s important to take precaution such as:
- Using compression stockings
- Regular exercise & activity
- Eating a balanced diet
- Undergoing cardiovascular assessment
You can also talk to your doctor about taking medication to reduce the likelihood of blood clots. Some medications like blood thinners may not be appropriate for all patients, depending on your situation, so be sure to consult your doctor before you take them.
Posttraumatic Syringomyelia (PTS)
Sometimes, after a traumatic spinal cord injury, a cyst filled with cerebrospinal fluid can form inside of the spinal cord. Normally this occurs at or around the same area as the original traumatic injury. As the cyst fills with more and more fluid, it begins to take up space, compressing the spinal cord against the inner walls of the spinal canal. This cyst is known as posttraumatic syringomyelia (PTS).
The pressure on the spinal cord from the cyst can be very painful, and can further cut off nervous signals from the brain to affected parts of the body, removing sensorimotor functions from incomplete SCIs. PTS can develop any time after the initial spinal cord injury, even years later. If not treated, the cyst can grow, moving up & down the spinal column and damaging new parts of the spinal cord.
Luckily, posttraumatic syringomyelia is relatively infrequent and can be treated surgically if it’s caught early. If you notice a deterioration in sensorimotor ability, chronic pain, trouble breathing or (in patients with a spinal injury T6 or higher) signs of autonomic dysreflexia, see your doctor immediately for an MRI.