Health problems are common after a spinal cord injury and they have been found to have a great impact on day to day life. A recent publication describes the extent of this impact and also lists the most frequent problems, such as bladder and bowel regulation.
Another publication investigates the association between ischemic bowel syndrome in people with spinal cord injury and suggest that there is an inherent increased risk.
You will find a summary from these articles in this blog post!
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27431661
van der Meer P, Post MW, van Leeuwen CM, van Kuppevelt HJ, Smit CA, van Asbeck FW. The Netherlands
Observational prospective study in 110 patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) comparing the impact of secondary health problems on functioning at home and social activities.
The impact of health problems after SCI is considerable and does not diminish with time. The most frequently mentioned health problems were handicap management, dependence on others, bladder and bowel regulation, pain, and expressing sexuality.
Study investigating health problems secondary to SCI and their impact on day to day life.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5253566/
Tseng C-W, Cheng-Li L, Chen Y-T, Jeng L-B. Taiwan
Observational study comparing 42,856 patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) with 171,171 controls to investigate whether SCI is associated with the risk of ischemic bowel syndrome (IBS). Co-morbidities were also investigated.
Patients hospitalized for SCI have an increased risk of developing ischemic bowel syndrome. However, the mechanism that predisposes SCI patients to ischemic bowel syndrome is still unclear.
Extensive study of the risk for SCI patients of developing ischemic bowel syndrome.
This blog post is an extract from the Science Alert from February 2017 (76040-USX-1702)