Quadriplegia means that all four legs and arms can’t move. Usually, the chest part, too, can’t move, but usually, the legs and arms get hit the hardest. Loads of people find clever ways to live with such a lack of muscle power and yet still have a great life.
Sometimes, depending upon the initial cause of quadriplegia and its seriousness, individuals may experience the return of some movements to those muscles that initially stopped working.
Quadriplegia Causes
When there is some injury to these nerves that causes loss of mobility in the arms and legs, the condition is called quadriplegia. These may be brought about by various things, such as a blow to the back or some kind of disease affecting the nerves.
Your brain is like a big conductor, and your arms and legs are one of the instruments playing in the orchestra. The instruments won’t play if their conductor doesn’t tell them what to do. That pretty much describes what goes on in quadriplegia. It doesn’t happen in that the brain simply can’t get the signal to the arms and legs due to damage in the neck area of the spinal cord.
Moreover, damage to the spine also makes our brain can’t communicate with our body under the neck. That’s why people with quadriplegia feel weak inside and can’t move their bodies and legs.
It can occur due to:
- Car accidents
- Taking a nasty tumble
- Violent Sports
- being shot
- Being attacked
- Having a certain kind of stroke
- When it is not getting enough oxygen to the brain
- Germs cause infection in our nervous system.
- A huge bump on the head
Some of them are cerebral palsy, spinal cord injuries, multiple sclerosis, a fearsome disease with a big name called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, yet another one with a name like Guillain-Barré syndrome, and finally the one called transverse myelitis.
Types of Quadriplegia
Various forms of quadriplegia or paralysis could result depending on the severity of the neurological injury. And, if you have suffered an injury to your spinal cord, here is what you would feel:
Complete Quadriplegia
In cases of severe injury to the spinal cord, where there is a case of completely cut spine cord, it may further lead to a condition known as complete quadriplegia. In other words, all the nerve connections at the level of injury become impaired.
This involves the messages being unable to travel from the brain down to the parts of the body below the injury. The majority of persons who have complete quadriplegia tend to lose movements and feelings completely below the site of injury.
Incomplete Quadriplegia
Incomplete quadriplegia is a partial cut of the cord. However, there is still some connection from the brain to areas below the injury. Because of this, several functions below the injury site are still working. A patient who acquires such a spinal injury may have sensation in, or even mobility of, his or her lower extremities.
The brain can be damaged to cause complete quadriplegia of the four limbs. This is commonly seen in people with cerebral palsy, or CP. Here is how it looks in the different types:
Spastic Quadriplegia
One form of CP that arises from motor cortex damage is spastic quadriplegia. Those with the ailment experience increased muscle tone, or spasticity, within the arms, torso, and legs.
It can be debilitating, affecting facial muscles as well as complicating eating and talking. However, the arms and legs are the primary victims of this spasticity- the musculature within them becomes rigid, which is why the whole body stiffens up.
Cerebral Palsy Ataxic
Cerebellum damages cause another form of cerebral palsy known as ataxic cerebral palsy. The sufferers of this kind of quadriplegia have problems regarding coordination and balance and, in general, low muscle tone.
Dyskinetic Cerebral Palsy
Dyskinetic cerebral palsy is another form of CP, which is due to damage to the basal ganglia and/or thalamus. Individuals with this type fluctuate between high and low muscle tone. For this reason, it can be perceived that they are in continuous motion. In contrast, these movements are not at their discretion.
Understanding Quadriplegia – Its Signs and Effects
When such an injury leaves your arms, torso, and legs paralyzed, it can very easily alter your everyday life. The extent of such neurological damage could also cause an extreme number of additional complications that are associated with quadriplegia.
Here are some possible signs and symptoms of quadriplegia.
- Muscle weakness to complete paralysis
- Loss of sensation
- Difficulty in bowel and bladder functioning
- Sexual activities with difficulty
- Breathing difficulties
- Difficulty in keeping good posture and disturbances in balance because of inappropriate and unstable control of the torso.
- Pain, tingling, or numbness below the injury
- spasticity-uncontrollable muscle contractions
Since quadriplegia affects much of the body, individuals affected by quadriplegia may also need the services of a caregiver to undertake most tasks, such as grooming oneself or eating.
Does Quadriplegia Recover?
Unfortunately, when neurons in your brain or spinal cord are damaged, they cannot regenerate. However, portions of your central nervous system that are undamaged by an injury can still have the capacity to compensate for restored lost functions through neural functions via something called neuroplasticity.
In simple terms, neuroplasticity is how our central nervous system can reshape its neural connections according to the repetitive actions we perform. Sort of like exercising your brain!
So, if you continue to practice a particular function weakened by injury, you exercise your central nervous system. This persistent stimulation and increased demand for the functions push the brain or spinal cord into acting. The response is to reroute those affected functions to unaffected areas, thereby strengthening them.
The less the extent of damaged tissue, the better the prognosis. However, even in quadriplegia, if some neural pathways are intact, there is still a flicker of hope for recovery or improving the functioning capability.
Even when one also suffers from a complete spinal cord injury that results in quadriplegia, it is not the end of the road. While leveraging neuroplasticity to regain their motor and sensory functions might be futile, they can independently work out as much as possible through adaptation methods.
Management of Quadriplegia
Occupational Therapy
Occupational therapy mainly assists people living with quadriplegia. The main intention is to enable function and independence in daily living activities. During this process, the occupational therapist teaches the person with quadriplegia and the caregivers how to deal with daily activities that include relocating, bathing, and grooming a person.
Part of this involves training them with specially designed equipment, such as learning special techniques, including tenodesis. This is a natural movement where, for example, when we flex our wrist forward, our hand opens, or when we extend the wrist, the fingers curl in.
Speech Therapy
It is not unusual for quadriplegics to experience oral motor difficulties that hinder their capabilities to eat and swallow as well as limit their talking. Patients with a lesion at the C5 level of the spinal cord or higher may have labored breathing.
It is due to the weakening effect on diaphragmatic functions. Speech therapists can be of great service to these patients by teaching them how to improve their oral motor functions, ways of communicating effectively, and ways of breathing.
Physical Therapy
Quadriplegia physical therapy helps empower people with weak or underutilized muscles. It maintains full body movement with certain exercises. A physical therapist can teach about the right kind of exercises. These sorts of exercises aim to improve neuroplasticity in the central nervous system.
They sometimes suggest the use of orthotics like braces and splints. These help maintain proper alignment of the skeletal system and help in locomotion.
To Sum Up
Managing quadriplegia involves a great deal of difficulties. Still, a combination of physiotherapies and treatment in the right proportion provides patients with greater independence and a high quality of life.