The spinal cord is part of the central nervous system. The spinal cord receives and relays information from various body parts to the brains. The spinal cord may be affected, there will be talk of a paraplegic, with paraplegia or quadriplegia (tetraplegia) may occur.

The spinal cord together with the brains central nervous system. The spinal cord is enclosed in the spine, which consists of a total of 30 vertebrae:

* 8 cervical vertebrae
* 12 thoracic vertebrae
*  5 lumbar vertebrae
* 5 sacral vertebrae

Every element of this spine corresponds to a piece of skin. This is also called a dermatome. This piece of skin is associated with a specific spinal nerve. In general it may be that parts of the cervical spine to the arms control, the thoracic and lumbar parts of the body parts of the legs.

Dorsal and ventral route

Afferent nerves from the back of the spine inside the spinal cord and provide information about the sensory receptors of the body. These spinal nerves in the spinal cord all together and are collectively called the dorsal pathway. Efferent nerves take information from the spinal cord back to the muscles and form a bundle of nerves called the ventral pathway.

Function of the spinal cord

French physiologist François Magendie was a lot of experimenting with what the body of animals. In 1822 he reported on his findings with the cutting of the dorsal and ventral pathway of puppies. He discovered that by cutting the dorsal pathway led to a loss of physical sensation and the cutting of the ventral pathway resulted in a loss of motion. These observations have led to the Bell-Magendie law.

When people with spinal cord has been cut so that it no longer has control over the legs there is pareplegie. In this case, the spinal cord below the cervical vertebrae is damaged. When one also no longer has control over the poor there is talk of quadriplegia.

Previously it was completely abandoned when the cord was damaged. Nowadays there are many more possibilities of injury to the spinal cord to treat. Because the spinal cord is heavily dependent on the brains, it is believed that when the connection between brains and spinal cord repair, the functions will also recover. Unfortunately not arise spontaneously organized regrowth of these compounds in humans. Scientists are currently experimenting with new ways to build links.

Sensory information plays an important role in the induction of various types of movement organized by the spinal cord. Movements depends only on the functioning of the spinal reflexes are called movements that can be triggered by specific sensory stimulation.

Paraplegia

Paraplegia refers to damage to the spinal cord. This damage to the spinal cord can occur in various ways. So could there be an accident, but also a non-traumatic cause such as bleeding or infection. The spinal cord is responsible for communication between various body parts. If there is a spinal cord injury or incomplete, some messages are not passed allowing disturbances in motor control or sensation.

Severity of SCI

There may be a complete paraplegia or incomplete paraplegia. When you prick the anus or the rectum no longer feel no longer able to span can we speak of a full or complete paraplegia. The moment one or both actions is present we speak of an incomplete spinal cord injury.

In general, the higher in the spinal cord and the damage is more extensive the damage is more serious consequences.

There is talk of paraplegia when the injury at the height of the first thoracic vertebra (T1), or lower. In this case, the poor are not affected. It is quadriplegia or tetraplegia spoken when the lesion is between the first (C1) and last cervical vertebra (C8) is. The arms are done in this case.