Medical Conditions Related to the Spinal Cord: A Case-Based Essay

Running head: CASE BASED ESSAY
CASE BASED ESSAY
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

1CASE BASED ESSAY
The purpose of this essay is to discuss medical conditions related to the spinal cord which
is generally occurs between the age of 18 years to 25 years and their clinical manifestation. In
this essay, three medical conditions which will be discussed are spinal cord injury, adult
scoliosis, and herniated lumbar disc.
Spinal cord injury - Spinal cord injury is among one of the leading injury related to spinal
cord and in the United States alone, eleven thousand cases of spinal cord injury happens every
year. The occurrence of Spinal cord injury is maximum among people between 16 to 30 years of
age, in whom 53.1 per cent of injuries occur. This age group involves more spinal cord injuries
than all other age groups. The three most important causes of Spinal cord injury
include automotive accidents, falls and gunshots respectively. The seriousness of spinal
cord injury is dependent on the impacted area of the spinal cord. The higher in the spinal cord
injured on the column, or the nearer it is for the brain, and more impact it has on the movement
and sensation of the body. A complete Spinal cord injury causes total sensory and motor loss
below that injury levels. Almost 50 per cent are complete spinal cord injury out of all Spinal cord
injury. In this scenario, body gets equally affected on both sides. In case of incomplete Spinal
cord injury, some of the functions remain below the injury's primary level. A person suffering
from incomplete spinal cord injury may be able to shift a leg or arm far more than the other one
or more on one part of the body (Lee et al., 2014).
Adult Scoliosis - When scoliosis is discovered or occurs after adolescence, it is known
as adult scoliosis to differentiate between the curves triggered by growth. Adult scoliosis can
occur or result during young adulthood as a result of untreated or un- reconciled childhood
scoliosis. In adulthood, the main causes of scoliosis are actually quite different from the varieties
of childhood. Most adult scoliosis cases are idiopathic, meaning that the reason behind it is not

2CASE BASED ESSAY
known. Adult scoliosis is occasionally caused by changes of the backbone which caused by
ageing and spinal degeneration. Back pain might develop as the adult scoliosis progresses. The
abnormality can cause nerve and possibly the whole spinal cord under pressure. It could result in
lower extremity numbness, weakness, and pain (Cho et al., 2014).
Herniated lumbar disc - Herniated lumbar disc can be defined as a displacement outside
of inter-vertebral disks of the disc space (annulus fibrosis or nucleus pulposus). The biggest
incidence has been noticed among the young adult with a 2:1 ratio between males and females.
There is very little evidence that the drug therapy or treatment for herniated discs is effective.
For the age group between 25 to 55 years old, the lower spine (L4/5 and L5/S1)
gets affected in approximately 95 per cent of herniated disc occurrence. Risk factors for disk
herniation include weight bearing sports such as weight lifting, smoking and certain working
activities like continuous lifting. It was suggested that driving a motorized vehicle is a risk
factor; however, there is no conclusive evidence in regard to this aspect (Rasouli et al., 2014).
From above the three conditions, the details of spinal cord injury will discuss in further
details in the following sections. In order to do that, manifestation of spinal cord injury through a
person’s life span, diagnosis, allopathic treatment, chiropractic treatment and medication will be
discussed.
Progression of spinal cord injury through lifespan – Different changes happens through
different system of the body in case of spinal cord injury while aging and it will be discussed
below.
Musculoskeletal changes: In this scenario, Calcium loss ultimately results in
osteoporosis. Muscles lose muscle mass and coordinated strength and coordination, deteriorate