Quadriplegia, also known as tetraplegia, is a symptom in which a human experiences paralysis of all four limbs, although not necessarily total paralysis. The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (most commonly known by the abbreviation ICD) provides codes to classify diseases and a wide variety of signs, symptoms, abnormal findings, complaints, social circumstances and external causes of injury or disease. ... The following codes are used with International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. ... // G00-G99 - Diseases of the nervous system (G00-G09) Inflammatory diseases of the central nervous system (G00) Bacterial meningitis, not elsewhere classified (G01) Meningitis in bacterial diseases classified elsewhere (G02) Meningitis in other infectious and parasitic diseases classified elsewhere (G03) Meningitis due to other and unspecified causes (G04) Encephalitis, myelitis... The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (most commonly known by the abbreviation ICD) provides codes to classify diseases and a wide variety of signs, symptoms, abnormal findings, complaints, social circumstances and external causes of injury or disease. ... The following is a list of codes for International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. ... Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) is a huge controlled vocabulary (or metadata system) for the purpose of indexing journal articles and books in the life sciences. ... The term symptom (from the Greek syn = con/plus and pipto = fall, together meaning co-exist) has two similar meanings in the context of physical and mental health: Strictly, a symptom is a sensation or change in health function experienced by a patient. ... Paralysis is the complete loss of muscle function for one or more muscle groups. ...

Causes

It is caused by damage to the brain or to the spinal cord at a high level (e.g. spinal cord injuries secondary to an injury to the cervical spine). The injury causes the victim to lose partial or total use of the arms and legs. In animals, the brain, or encephalon (Greek for in the head), is the control center of the central nervous system. ... The Spinal cord nested in the vertebral column. ... A cervical vertebra Cervical vertebrae (Vertebrae cervicales) are the smallest of the true vertebrae, and can be readily distinguished from those of the thoracic or lumbar regions by the presence of a foramen (hole) in each transverse process. ...

Terminology

The condition is also termed tetraplegia; both terms mean "paralysis of four limbs", however tetraplegia is becoming the more accepted term for this condition.

Tetraplegia, used commonly in Europe, is the more etymologically correct version since both "tetra" and "plegia" are Greek roots whereas "quadra" is a Latin root.

Incidence/prevalence

There are about 5000 cervical spinal cord injuries per year in the United States and about 1000 per year in the UK. In 1988, it was estimated that lifetime care of a 27-year-old rendered tetraparetic was about US $1 million and that the total national costs were US $5.6 billion per year.

Treatment/prognosis

Delayed diagnosis of cervical spine injury has grave consequences for the victim. About one in twenty cervical fractures are missed, and about two-thirds of these patients suffer further spinal cord damage as a result. About 30% of cases of delayed diagnosis of cervical spine injury develop permanent neurological deficits.

In some rare cases, through intensive rehabilitation, slight movement can be regained through "rewiring" neural connections as in the case of the late actor Christopher Reeve.[1] In neuroscience, synaptic plasticity is the ability of the connection, or synapse, between two neurons to change in strength. ... Christopher Reeve (September 25, 1952 – October 10, 2004) was an American actor, director, producer and writer. ...

Support organizations

• Back-Up Trust
• MDAUSA
• Spinal Cord Injury Peer Support

The Back-Up Trust is a British medical charity dedicated to working with humans paralysed through spinal cord injury. ...

Related conditions

• hemiplegia
• paraplegia
• locked-In syndrome

Paraplegia is a condition in which the lower part of a persons body is paralyzed and cannot willfully function. ... Locked-In syndrome is a condition in which a patient is aware and awake, but cannot move or communicate due to complete paralysis of nearly all voluntary muscles in the body. ...

See also

• clearing the cervical spine