Nursing Assignment | Response to Questions

Running head: NURSING
NURSING
Name of Student
Name of University
Author note

1
Spinal cord
compression
FALL FRACTURE
GENDER
AGE
Patient risk factors
Aetiology
Nursing interventions
Impaired blood circulation
Pathophysiology
Investigations
Spinal care
Hypertension
Autonomic dysreflexia
Necrosis
Hyperreflexia Prostaglandin release
Ischemia – due to vasoconstriction
Upper back pain –
tenderness of T5-
T6 Hypoxia – due to ischemic changes
Cardiovascular care Oedema – due to immune system cellular infiltration
Normalize blood pressure Release of chemokines and cytokines
Respiratory care Demyelination
Pain management
Axonal damage
X-ray
Pins and needles
sensation in both
limbs
Gliosis
CT scan
No bowel
movement
Bowel care
No
sensation in
umbilicus

2
Response to question 1
The risk factors in the patient include age and gender. As she is an elderly woman of
65 years old, she is more at the risk of developing pressure problems, sympathetic
disturbances and she is more prone to the fall risks as well. Being female, she has reached
menopause that increases the chances of osteoporosis even more that lead to more chances of
developing fractures after fall injuries or other form of physical traumas.
Response to question 2
The subject had a fracture at the T5-T6 level that resulted in a spinal cord injury.
Following the spinal cord injury there are a series of pathophysiological changes that follows.
It is to be critically noted that the primary trauma causes primary injury that in turn leads to
the secondary injury. The primary trauma causes axon shearing and the Wallerian
degeneration. The primary changes in the primary trauma include passage of blood from the
raptured vessels to the subdural, extradural and subarachnoid space, cell necrosis and
apoptosis, release of prostaglandins, arachadonic acid and alarmin which causes the
secondary damage. Impaired blood circulation leads to ischemia, hypoxia and extravasation
of the leukocytes are the secondary changes. Edema formation, demyelination, axonal
damage and gliosis follow. The release of prostaglandins caused pain in the patient.
Hypertension and Hyperreflexia is caused by autonomic dysreflexia which is asymptom after
spinal cord injury. Sensory deficits and numbness in the patient were caused by neurological
disruption at the spinal cord level.