On the left the mechanical damage of the moment: tissue with a crack through it and the forces that made it. On the right, four numbered drawings of what continues — a torn vessel with cells escaping, a vessel narrowed and the tissue beyond it pale, a membrane under attack, and an axon losing its sheath. A time line under both, from the first days into the months.
Spinal shockA temporary state right after an injury in which reflexes below the level disappear and muscles go flaccid. Reflexes usually return over time. It is a state of the reflexes, not of the circulation.
Neurogenic shockA state of the circulation: loss of sympathetic tone, dilated vessels, low blood pressure and a slow pulse. More common at high levels. It is dangerous, and it is constantly confused with spinal shock, which is a different thing.
The grade is not stated in the recordA state of our data, not a state of a body. The great majority of records in this corpus do not state the AIS grade in a field this map reads — so the "complete" and "incomplete" cells are empty not because no such studies exist but because the records do not say. That is a gap, and this is where it is visible.
Traumatic injuryDamage from an outside force: a road collision, a fall, sport, violence, a wound. The force acts on the spine and through it on the cord.
Primary injuryWhat happened at the moment of injury: mechanical damage to tissue, vessels and fibres. It has already happened and cannot be undone.
Secondary injuryThe biological processes that begin minutes after the blow and continue for hours, days and weeks. This is where most research aims: unlike the primary damage, this stage is still in progress.
Haemorrhage and swellingBlood leaks into the tissue and the tissue swells. Pressure inside the canal rises — and that pressure does damage of its own.
Reduced blood flow and inflammationBlood flow falls and cells run short of oxygen. Inflammatory cells arrive, and their work both clears debris and harms neighbouring tissue.
Identifiers
NCT number: NCT03105882
Claims this paper bears on
Nothing has been recorded here yet.
This map holds only what has been read and checked against a source, and nothing has been recorded for this section. Empty here means exactly that — not zero, and not a fault in the page.
This map holds only what has been read and checked against a source, and nothing has been recorded for this section. Empty here means exactly that — not zero, and not a fault in the page.