A new study coming out of the University of Maryland School of Medicine has found, as no study has before it, that spinal cord injuries may be more serious than just the damage to the spinal cord itself. They may also be responsible for brain damage further along in a person’s life.
There are many factors that play into this, but the biggest thing is that an injury to the spinal cord can then cause the brain to be inflamed, in a sustained manner, for a significant amount of time. This inflammation could then cause some of the nerve cells to be killed. The loss of these cells can then be traced to a number of issues, such as depression and cognitive disorders.
This information was released in a pair of articles. One of them was in Cell Cycle and the other was in the Journal of Neuroscience.
To get their results, the team used both experimental models and studies involving animals. Similar impacts had been recorded before when people suffered from traumatic injuries — like those suffered in car accidents or motorcycle accidents, for example — or when a smaller injury was repeated time and time again. However, this is the first study to link the same type of nerve and tissue damage, and all of the destructive results that follow, to spine-based injuries.
If you have suffered from a spinal cord injury in Florida and you are interested in seeking compensation, it is crucial that you know the full extent of your injuries, including what types of damage you could see in the coming years.
Source: Science Daily, “Do spinal cord injuries cause subsequent brain damage?” Nov. 14, 2014