Spinal Cord Injury Flashcards
how many spinal segments are there?
- 31 spinal segments
what are the number and different divisions called of the spine?
- cervical = 8
- thoracic = 12
- lumbar = 5
- sacral = 5
- coccygeal = 1
what do segments’ originate?
- originate pairs of spinal nerves (plexus)
what is the spinal cord surrounded by? what does it do?
- meninges
- membrane layer that covers and protects the spine
what are the three layers of meninges?
- dura matter
- arachnoid
- pia mater
what is the dura matter? where is it?
- tough outer layer
- closest to the skull
where is the arachnoid? what does it provide?
- middle meningeal layer
- provides structural and vascular support
what is the pia mater? where is it?
- innermost layer
what cells are generated in the meningeal layers?
- satellite cells
- immune cells e.g., glial cells
how can we understand the location of lesions? - give an example
- understand through the shape shown on the brain image
e.g., bleed between dura matter and pia matter results in a crescent form whereas closer to cortical structure= rounder shape
what is the spinal cord made of?
- gray and white matter
what are the 4 divisions of the gray matter?
- dorsal horn
- ventral horn
- lateral horn
- central canal
what does the dorsal horn contain? where is it?
- sensory neurons and interneurons
- located on posterior aspect
what does the ventral horn contain? what does it do? where is it?
- contains motor neurons whose axons exit via the ventral roots to innervate skeletal muscle
- found in anterior aspect
what does the lateral horn contain? where is it?
- contains pre- ganglionic sympathetic neurons
- only in the thoracic and lumbar regions
what is the central canal? what does it facilitate?
- centre of the gray matter
- CSF and satellite cell production
where is the white matter? what does it contain?
- white matter surrounds the gray matter
- contains ascending (sensory) and descending (motor tracts)
what are the three subdivisions of the white mater?
- dorsal column
- lateral column
- ventral column
what does the dorsal column contain and send information regarding?
- ascending sensory information towards the brain
- information regarding proprioception, vibration and fine touch
what do lateral columns contain?
- both ascending sensory and descending motor tracts
what do ventral columns contain?
- primary descending motor tracts
what happens to information that goes to the periphery?
- all information gets integrated by initial ganglion
what happens if the information from the periphery is important? what are these called?
- if important it is sent to the cerebellum or thalamus
- both are pre cortical sensory integration structures
where does the information go from the pre cortical sensory integration structures?
- navigates into somatic cortex (S1 & S2) in frontal and temporal lobes
