A Case of Spinal Cord Injury

By David F. Dean (rr)

Abstract

“Jason Hendrix,” a 21-year-old student majoring in economics, is injured in a serious motorcycle accident while on spring break in Florida. Students read the short case scenario, which provides a brief clinical history of the patient and a description of his injury, then answer a set of directed questions designed to probe the students’ knowledge of the anatomy, physiology, and pathology underlying the patient’s condition. The case study has been used in both a sophomore-level course in human anatomy and physiology and a senior-level course in general physiology.

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Date Posted

12/02/2005

Overview

Objectives

Learn the definitions of the terms tetraplegia and paraplegia, and the term neurological level as it relates to spinal cord injury (SCI).
Learn the definition of the term dermatome and how it relates to normal function of the spinal cord as well as the localization of the site of SCI.
Learn the definition of the term myotome and how myotomes are used to localize the site of SCI.
Learn the definition of the term stretch reflex, and how the examination of such reflexes is used to localize the site of SCI.
Learn how cases of SCI are managed.

Keywords

Nervous system; acute spinal cord injury; spine; tetraplegia; paraplegia; dermatome; myotome; stretch reflex; spinal reflex

Subject Headings

Anatomy

Medicine (General)

Neuroscience

Physiology

EDUCATIONAL LEVEL

Undergraduate lower division, Undergraduate upper division

FORMAT

PDF

TOPICAL AREAS

N/A

LANGUAGE

English

TYPE/METHODS

Directed