The vertebrae normally protect the soft tissues of the spinal cord, but they can be broken or dislocated in a variety of ways that puts harmful pressure on the spinal cord. Injuries can occur at any level of the spinal cord. The segment of the cord that is injured, and the severity of the damage to the nervous tissue, will determine which body functions are compromised or lost. An injury to a part of the spinal cord causes physiological consequences to parts of the body controlled by nerves at and below the level of the injury.
What is spinal cord injury?
Current research is focused on four key principles of spinal cord repair:
Electrical Stimulation
The stimulation of the spinal cord delivers small bursts of a low-level electrical current to paralyzed muscles in order to help generate muscle contractions
Regeneration
Stimulating the regrowth of axons and targeting their connections appropriately
Cell Replacement
Replacing damaged nerve or glial cells