Quadriplegia - Symptoms, Signs and Complications

Symptoms, Signs and Complications

Although the most obvious symptom is impairment to the limbs, functioning is also impaired in the torso. This can mean a loss or impairment in controlling bowel and bladder, sexual function, digestion, breathing and other autonomic functions. Furthermore, sensation is usually impaired in affected areas. This can manifest as numbness, reduced sensation or burning neuropathic pain.

Secondarily, because of their depressed functioning and immobility, tetraplegics are often more vulnerable to pressure sores, osteoporosis and fractures, frozen joints, spasticity, respiratory complications and infections, autonomic dysreflexia, deep vein thrombosis, and cardiovascular disease.

Severity depends on both the level at which the spinal cord is injured and the extent of the injury.

An individual with an injury at C1 (the highest cervical vertebra, at the base of the skull), will probably lose function from the neck down and be ventilator-dependent. An individual with a C7 injury may lose function from the chest down but still retain use of the arms and much of the hands.

The extent of the injury is also important. A complete severing of the spinal cord will result in complete loss of function from that vertebra down. A partial severing or even bruising of the spinal cord results in varying degrees of mixed function and paralysis. A common misconception with Tetraplegia is that the victim cannot move legs, arms or any of the major function; this is often not the case. Some tetraplegic individuals can walk and use their hands, as though they did not have a spinal cord injury, while others may use wheelchairs and they can still have function of their arms and mild finger movement, again, that varies on the spinal cord damage.

It is common to have movement in limbs, such as the ability to move the arms but not the hands or to be able to use the fingers but not to the same extent, as before the injury. Furthermore, the deficit in the limbs may not be the same on both sides of the body; either left or right side may be more affected, depending on the location of the lesion on the spinal cord.