Simple Nursing Spinal Cord Injury - How To Treat The Patient?

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Sep 25, 2022

Dr. Bill Butcher - With more than two decades of experience, Dr. Bill Butcher aims to provide a repository for educational materials, sources of information, details of forthcoming events, and original articles related to the medical field and about health subjects that matter to you. His goal is to help make your life better, to help you find your way when faced with healthcare decisions, and to help you feel better about your health and that of your family. Bill received his medical degree at Boston University School of Medicine and spent his entire career helping people find the health and medical information, support, and services they need. His mission is to help millions of people feel fantastic by restoring them to optimal health.

Spinal Cord Injuries (SCIs) are a major cause of disability, with serious and, in many cases, fatal results. Recent data show that about 12,000 SCIs happen every year in the U.S., and up to 250,000 Americans live with SCIs. Here you will know about simple nursing spinal cord injury.

Most victims are between the ages of 16 and 30, and more than 80% are men. Most SCIs happen because of car accidents, falls, or gunshot wounds. For people 65 and older, falls are the leading cause of SCIs.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that SCI-related medical costs cost about $9.7 billion each year.

Spinal Injury First Aid

A woman in a stretcher wearing blue shirt

COPYRIGHT_SPINE: Published on https://spinal-injury.net/simple-nursing-spinal-cord-injury/ by Dr. Bill Butcher on 2022-09-28T04:10:05.903Z

Call 911 or get medical help right away.
Don't move the person. To stop the head and neck from moving put heavy towels or rolled sheets on both sides of the neck or hold the head and neck still.
Don't move your head or neck. Help the person as much as you can without moving their head or neck. If the person isn't breathing, coughing, or moving, you should start CPR, but you shouldn't tilt the head back to open the airway. Gently grab the jaw with your fingers and pull it forward. If the person doesn't have a heartbeat, start doing chest compressions.
Keep the helmet on. If the person has a helmet on, don't take it off. If you need to get to your airway, you should take off the facemask of your football helmet.
Don't roll alone. If the person is vomiting or choking on blood, or you need to make sure he or she is still breathing, you need at least one other person to help you roll the person. Work together to keep the injured person's head, neck, and back in line as you roll them onto one side. One of you should hold the person's head, and the other should hold the person's side.

Treatment On Spinal Injury

Even before the patient is admitted, treatment has already begun. The spine is carefully immobilized at the scene by paramedics or other people who work in emergency medical services.

In the emergency department (ED), the person is still immobilized while the medical team looks for and fixes more immediate problems that could kill the person.

If the patient needs emergency surgery because they were hurt in the abdomen, chest, or another area, they must be kept still and in the right position during the surgery.

For many people with CSI, traction may be recommended to help align the spine and get blood back to the area that was hurt. If a herniated disc, blood clot, or other lesion seems to be putting pressure on the spinal cord, a surgeon may take the patient right to the operating room.

Most of the time, this happens because of an incomplete SCI or a gradual loss of nerve function. Even if surgery can't fix the damage to the spinal cord, it may be needed to stabilize the spine and keep it from getting worse or hurting again.

Simple Nursing Spinal Cord Injury

A woman in a wheeled stretcher wearing a maroon jacket and a neck brace

Nursing care can stop or lessen injuries from getting worse and help the patient do as well as possible. Pay attention to:

Keeping the blood pressure steady (BP)
monitoring cardiovascular function
Making sure there is enough airflow and lung function
Preventing infections and other problems and taking care of them right away when they happen.

Use repeated SCI evaluations with a consistent grading system to track and report changes in motor and sensory skills, such as reflexes, deep tendon function, and rectal tone.

Make sure to set a baseline and do a series of assessments, usually every hour or more often when the injury is first happening and less often as it heals.

Do more checks and write down what you find every time the patient gets out of bed (for example, for diagnostic tests) or if you think their condition is getting worse.

Setting a baseline helps caregivers notice quickly if a person is getting better or worse. The provider, the nurse, and the physical therapist should all be involved in the assessment.

Conclusion

In a political and professional climate that requires nurses to define, maintain, and try to improve the quality of all parts of health care practice, they are required to base their decisions and actions on strong evidence. There are many things about how to treat a spinal cord injury that need more explanation and rules. Here is the simple nursing spinal cord injury.