Spinal Cord Injury
A Guide for Patients
What Causes Spinal Cord Injuries?
The causes of spinal cord injury can be put into two groups: traumatic and non-traumatic. The most common cause of traumatic injury in the United States is motor vehicle accidents (MVA's). MVA's account for 44% of all spinal cord injuries. Examples of injuries that occur to the spinal cord as the result of trauma include:
- Ischemia: decreased blood flow to the spinal cord
- Contusion: bruising of the spinal cord
- Fractures: broken bones (vertebrae)
- Dislocation: displaced or misaligned vertebrae
Non-traumatic injuries are caused by diseases that affect the bones, nerves, or spinal cord. Examples of these types of injuries include:
- Degeneration of bone (vertebrae)
- Bone spurs
- Infections or tumors in the spine
- Diseases involving the spinal cord such as: Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Guillain-Barŕe Syndrome, and Transverse Myelitis
How Common are Spinal Cord Injuries?
There are about 12,000 new spinal cord injuries in the United States each year. The number of people living with spinal cord injury is about 250,000-400,000. Of these, 82% are male and 18% are female.
