Incomplete vs complete injury

Q: My brother was recently injured in a diving accident and he's been told that he has incomplete C6/7 spinal cord injury. What does that mean?

A: A spinal cord injury (SCI) is described according to its location and whether the damage to the cord is through the entire width or only part of it. So "incomplete C6/7" means that the cord is damaged between the 6th and 7th cervical vertebrae, and the nerves in the cord have not been completely severed.

C6/7 is in the cervical section of the spine. Injury there results in quadriplegia, meaning that all four limbs will have some type of paralysis. Spinal cord damage at C6/7 should still enable good functionality of the arms but would usually affect fine finger movement.

However the functional effects of an incomplete injury can be anything from much the same as a complete injury at that level down to no lasting impairment at all, or anything in between. Because the swelling that occurs in the cord at the time of injury settles during the next 6–8 weeks, the extent of neurological damage is not immediately fully known.

In 2005/6 out of 284 people in Australia who sustained a traumatic spinal cord injury, only 11 had no lasting neurological damage.

The American Paralyzed Veterans Association has a set of guides describing outcomes of various levels of SCI. Each provides individual guidance on what people with different levels of SCI can reasonably expect to do one year after injury; what help will be needed with daily life tasks at home, at work, and in the community; and what equipment can help make a person with SCI more independent. You will find them @ www.pva.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=8093.

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