A spinal cord injury can be a life-changing event that no one is ever prepared for. Medical science has learned a great deal about how to treat the short-term consequences of a spinal cord injury. In the longer term, the imperative is to recover whatever function can be recovered through focusing on rehabilitation. Assistive technology can help to compensate for function that cannot be recovered. By preventing complications and striving for health, individuals can expect to enjoy good quality and length of life.

The mindset, attitudes and beliefs of the injured person and those around them will have a great impact on their potential for recovery, but there are limits to how far ‘belief’ will take them. Just believing that something is possible is not enough to make it so. We live in an age when technology, therapy and medical science can help individuals recover more function or at least remain healthier than would have seemed impossible just a few years ago. Whilst there is no cure yet for spinal cord injury, this no longer seems an impossible dream.

Every spinal cord-injured person faces a different challenge as they essentially have injuries with somewhat different characteristics. To deal with this, medical science has sought to find a way to classify spinal cord injuries in a way that helps to guide treatment, and to some extent, define the expectations for recovery. This article examines how spinal cord injuries are classified.

Welcome to our latest exploration in the captivating realm of neurorehabilitation. Today, we venture into the innovative field of transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation (tSCS) - a groundbreaking approach that has been making waves in recent years. Like Functional Electrical Stimulation, Neurofeedback and biofeedback, tSCS is within the general category of applications being referred to as neuromodulation.

Essentially, tSCS is a non-invasive method that involves sending small electrical currents transcutaneously to stimulate the spinal cord. Research has been underway to utilise tSCS in rehabilitating individuals with spinal cord injuries, opening new doors to hope and recovery.

By the end of this blog post, we aim to enlighten you about the science behind tSCS, and the potential it holds for improving the quality of life in spinal cord injury survivors

In the first article in this series, we described how the lifespan of our general population increased on average as we moved through the first half of the 20th century. This was largely due to improved public health measures and the arrival of antibiotics. At present, we no longer see lifespan increasing and what is worse, many of us spend the last years of life in poor health and subject to chronic conditions that are associated with ageing. These conditions are:-

Heart disease

Cancer

Neurodegenerative disease

Type 2 diabetes and related metabolic dysfunction

These conditions are highly correlated with age and approximately 80% of the population will succumb to them. To some extent, they may have common causes that we would need to dig deep to uncover. In particular, metabolic dysfunction seems to be a precursor to all these other diseases.

Welcome to the first of a series of articles that will tackle the topic of improving life expectancy after a spinal cord injury. The goal of these articles is to provide valuable information on how to not just live longer, but healthier. We all want to age "gracefully", and that's why we need to start thinking about healthspan rather than just lifespan. Research suggests that the life expectancy of persons following a traumatic spinal cord injury has been improving since the 1950's but remains shorter compared with the general population. We will discuss why the length of life is not the only thing that counts.

In this first article, we will discuss the importance of healthspan and what we can do to achieve it. Living longer is great, but what's even better is having the physical ability to perform daily activities and participate fully in the life we want. Subsequent articles will delve into how spinal cord injuries affect lifespan and provide insights on creating a plan to live healthier.

So, let's take charge of our health and work towards enjoying a fulfilling life. Let's start by looking at the population at large and introduce the concepts of lifespan and "healthspan" and see why we don't want to have a long life unless it is also a healthy life.

A spinal cord injury is a life-altering event that can happen to anyone, anywhere, and at any time. It can occur due to a wide variety of reasons, such as accidents, falls, sports injuries, or medical conditions.

The severity of a spinal cord injury varies greatly and each person, even with what can seem to be similar injuries, can have different symptoms and functional outcomes. As part of the clinical approach to understanding and managing such injuries, a system of classification has been developed.

When people are injured, they are often told that they have damage to specific bony vertebrae and the cord itself at a given level, along with a further qualifier suggesting the severity of the injury, typically as a ‘complete’ or ‘incomplete’ injury. But what do these terms mean, and what is their significance?

So, let's dive in and discover what you need to know about complete vs. incomplete spinal cord injury and its effects on the nervous system.

We should shortly see the emergence of new spinal cord stimulation products that can assist rehabilitation, as the first examples are approaching commercialisation. Although not a cure for spinal cord injury, these devices have been shown to assist in the recovery of function in situations where this seemed lost for ever.

Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) has a rich history that dates back to the 1960s, when it was first introduced as a potential treatment for chronic pain management. Pioneered by Dr. Norman Shealy (1967) this innovative method was initially developed to alleviate intractable pain by delivering mild electrical pulse trains to the spinal cord via implantation of electrodes.

Over the years, the field of SCS has witnessed significant advancements in both technology and research, broadening its potential applications to include functional recovery following spinal cord injury (SCI).

This article looks briefly at the state of the art.