World J Phys Rehabil Med | Volume 2, Issue 1 | Review Article | Open Access

Spinal Cord Injury and Tools in Research for Future Therapy

Jack Kushner*

Department of Neurosurgery, University of Alabama Medical Center, USA

*Correspondance to: Jack Kushner 

Fulltext PDF

Abstract

While serving with the 91st evacuation hospital as a combat surgeon in Viet-Nam (1966-67), I treated several soldiers suffering with spinal cord injuries. These injuries occurred when the soldiers were taken to an area by helicopter and literally dropped off in the combat zone. The helicopter pilots transporting them to the combat zones with vegetation obscuring their view misjudged the distance to the ground. The soldiers jumped from a greater height and were injured as they fell to the ground. So instead of jumping out of the helicopter for just a few feet, the soldiers would leap, find they had a much greater jump, and would fracture their spine and injure their spinal cords. These soldiers would be brought to our hospital by helicopter and were found to have sustained a significant vertebral column fracture dislocation with an accompanying spinal cord contusion or compression. And thus would begin the long, long road for treatment of the spinal cord injury and frequently they were found to have a fracture dislocation at T12-L1 with paraplegia.

Keywords:

Spinal cord injury; Research on spinal injury treatment

Citation:

Kushner J. Spinal Cord Injury and Tools in Research for Future Therapy. World J Phys Rehabil Med. 2018;2(1):1006.

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