Spinal cord injuries have many causes, but are typically associated with major trauma from motor vehicle accidents, slip trip and falls, bike accidents, motorcycle accidents, premise liability and negligence of others.
Hi, I’m Tim Williams with Dwyer Williams Potter Attorneys. I’m the lead litigation attorney here at the firm and also a partner. I’d like to talk to you about the spine.
As you can see in the diagram, the human body is composed of bones over which muscles and the skin lie. Today, we’re going to focus on the back, and you’ll see that in the middle of the diagram, just below the sternum. The spine is comprised of several areas. The cervical area is the top, and that’s commonly referred to as the neck. Next is a thoracic area and that’s the mid back. Finally, there’s a lumbar area, or the low back, and below that lies the sacrum and then down at the bottom is the coccyx.
As you can see, the back is comprised of several layers of bones. These are called the vertebrae, and the stack on top of each other. In between each vertebra lies a disk. These disks are softer and allow for movement of the back. Towards the back of the back, or the spine, exist these bony prominences, and these stick out and allow muscles to attach to them, which allows the back to move. You can see that there is the central spinal cord here in yellow. It extends down through this canal in the back and out from which extends these smaller nerves, and the nerves innervate the body and allow for movement and also for pain reception.
And here we have two vertebra so we can get a closer look, and those are the bony portions of the back and between which is the disk. And this is pretty neat because we can take this off and get a closer look. So you take it off and, again, this is the vertebrae or the bone that comprises one level of the back. If you hold it up like this, you can see where the spinal canal exists, or the spinal cord goes through that hole there, and then the nerves exiting off the spinal cord come out each side. So there’s a vertebrae. And in between the vertebrae is the disk.
So the disk is comprised essentially of a harder, fibrous material on the outside and a really jelly-like material in the inside. And if you think of a jelly donut, you have a pretty good idea of what a disk is. And sometimes this outer layer can become damaged and the inner jelly can leak out, and that’s called a herniation. You see that here. So that’s actually a herniated disk. This is a damaged disk here. This is the spinal cord and you can see it’s exiting out the little hole I showed you in the bottom vertebrae, and these are the nerves exiting off the spinal cord there. This is the way it goes and, for instance, it gives you nerve conduction to your arm, or your other arm, or perhaps your leg, depending on where the body you’re looking.
So, typically, injuries to the back involve the muscles that attach in the rear of the spine. They can involve the bony prominences of the spine itself where the spine is broken, or even if the vertebral body is broken. They can involve the disks, which are between, and they can have the herniation or bulges, as I discussed earlier. They can also involve the nerves extending off and away from the back, or you can have an aggravation or a pinching of the nerve and cause significant pain.
Please feel free to check out other videos on our website. I want to thank you for watching this video on the spine.
WATCH OTHER VIDEOS ON OUR WEBSITE.
 Degenerative Disc |
 Annular Tears |
 Cervical Fusion |
 Facet Joint Injury |
 Disk Herniation |
 Exacerbation of Injury |
 Osteoarthritis |
 Preexisting Condition |
