This Week’s Q&A
Q: What spinal cord injuries occur most in sports?
A: There are two types of spinal cord related injuries that occur most frequently in sports. The first is called a stinger or burner and the second is transient quadreplegia. While they can happen in almost any sport, they are most commonly found in contact activities such as wresting, rugby and football.
Stingers are a painful nerve injury created by compression in the neck or shoulder area that creates a sharp stinging or burning sensation in an arm. Transient quadriplegia typically results from hyperextension of the neck coupled with cervical spinal stenosis or disc protrusion.
The aptly named stingers affect close to 50 percent of those in contact sports, while the more debilitating transient quadriplegia occurs in roughly 1.3 athletes out of 10,000. Overall, spinal cord injuries are decreasing as better equipment is created and worn.
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