Spinal Cord Injuries eMedicine Emergency

Description: Patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) usually have permanent and often devastating neurologic deficits and disability.
The goals for the emergency physician are to establish the diagnosis and initiate treatment to prevent further neurologic injury from either pathologic motion of the injured vertebrae or secondary injury from the deleterious effects of cardiovascular instability or respiratory insufficiency.
Synonyms and related keywords: spinal cord injury, SCI, anterior cord syndrome, Brown-Séquard syndrome, central cord syndrome, conus medullaris syndrome, cauda equina syndrome, incomplete SCI syndromes, spinal cord concussion, spinal cord injury syndromes, SCIWORA, spinal cord injury without radiologic abnormality
Donald Schreiber, MD