Spinal injuries are painful and require rapid treatment in order to prevent serious damage. Even after initial treatment, pain associated with spinal injuries can linger.
Causes
Spinal injuries are most common following a hard fall or a diving accident. Generally, any trauma to the head, neck, or back can result in a spinal injury. For some patients, arthritis can contribute to a frailty of the spine, which contributes to more severe injuries.
Symptoms
The pain caused by a spinal injury can be temporary or last for months. It can make walking difficult and is often accompanied by other symptoms like weakness, headaches, neck pain, numbness, and tingling down one or more limbs. Your spinal injury can also contribute to other painful conditions, like facet syndrome (the breakdown of cartilage between the spine’s joints) and a herniated disc (cracks in the disc that causes the center of the disc to bulge out).
Treatments
An intrathecal pump may be placed to deliver pain medication, usually morphine, right to the nerves and spinal cord in a continuous dosage. Other spinal injuries can have their pain managed with nerve stimulation, which helps by blocking pain signals that are sent to the brain.