Paraplegia Clinical Characteristics, Prevalence and Treatment Outcomes

In the last 20 years, fundamental research to repair the spinal cord has yielded positive results and today, there is real hope that a cure might be found for the treatment of spinal injuries. This has only been possible because in the last 70 years, patients with a traumatic injury of the spinal cord have been kept alive through conservative forms of treatment and returned to useful independent lives. It is salutary at this stage to look at how this conservative treatment developed. This book begins by providing a history of the treatment of spinal cord injuries and continues by examining the pertinent epidemiology, injury characteristics, and outcomes of spinal cord injury in children. It also discusses anaesthetic management of patients with chronic spinal cord injury; morphological changes of toenails in hemiplegia; and spasticity.