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The Causes Of Constipation From Spinal Nerve Injury
Spinal nerve injuries cause many problems for a person depending on where on the spine the injury occurs will determine just what the complications are. A person who suffers a broken neck will suffer involvement from the neck down the full length of the body, while people with injuries to their lower back will suffer problems with their legs and lower body functions.
People who have injuries as low down on the spine as the tailbone may suffer constipation from the spinal nerve injury. The nerves for the lower intestinal tract are very low on the spine and any injury to the spine above that area will impact bowel and bladder functioning. While a person will lose control of their bowel and bladder causing incontinence sometimes a person will lose normal sensations causing constipation from the spinal nerve injury. The nerves in the spine carry messages to and from the brain to all body parts and since the nerves are like phone lines from two parties allowing the people to call each other and carry on conversations, if the lines are damaged anywhere along the way the conversation and phone calls will be impacted.
Sometimes one person can call out but the other person can't receive the call and sometimes the lines are severed and no communication can be carried out. The spinal nerves work in much the same way. Constipation from the spinal nerve injury may be caused by the brain being unable to tell the bowels to move or may be caused by the bowels being unable to tell the brain that they need to move. Whatever the cause is, the constipation from spinal nerve injury will need to be addressed.
Relief Of Constipation From Spinal Nerve Injury
One benefit of the intestinal tract is that if it can be stimulated it will respond automatically. This becomes important knowledge when working with constipation from spinal nerve injury as the primary objective in treating the constipation is to get the intestinal tract stimulated to move. There are several measures the patient and medical staff can take to facilitate intestinal mobility. First the patient needs to have adequate dietary intake of both fluids and solids and eating a high fiber diet will benefit the patient greatly.
Another measure that can be taken is for the physician to prescribe medications to stimulate the intestines. Both these measures may provide enough stimulation to treat constipation from spinal nerve injury and often the last intervention taken by the medical staff is digital stimulation of the bowels. If necessary a nurse or physician can stimulate the rectal area of the patient using a gloved finger. If the spinal nerve injury is permanent the caregiver of the patient can be trained to provide this care.
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