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Chapter 11 the peripheral nervous system
Chapter 11 the peripheral nervous system
Peripheral nervous system a&p
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Recommended: Chapter 11 the peripheral nervous system
Peripheral Neuropathy
Peripheral nerves are categorized as both sensory and motor which means they help provide sensations and move ligaments. These nerves attach to the spinal cord and run throughout the human body. Damaging these nerves may result in peripheral neuropathy. This condition is the degenerative state of the peripheral nerves. During this state, nerves may lose the ability to function therefore, causing multiple problems with one’s body. There are multiple causes to this condition and many can be avoided.
Vitamin deficiencies are a leading cause of nerves being damaged or weakened. Several vitamins such as B12, B6, and E are essential for keeping humans and their bodies healthy. Without these vitamins, the human body would slowly start to deteriorate with function. Thiamine is greatly needed to keep nerves in a stable state and prevent inflammation of the nerves. Humans must do their part to keep their bodies healthy and safe from spinal damage as caused most commonly by car accidents.
Car accidents are the most common cause of peripheral neuropathy. During a car accident, the nerves may be dismembered or dislocated.
“One example of acquire peripheral neuropathy is trigeminal neuralgia (also known as tic doulcunex), in which the damage to the trigeminal nerve (the largest nerve of the head and face) causes episodic attacks of excruitiating, lightning-like pain on one side of the face” (Peripheral Neuropathy Fact Sheet).
The car accident could damage ones spinal cord if it was crushed or hit hard enough. If the spinal cord is severed, the peripheral nerves may detach from the spinal cord. Detachment may lead to pressure applied by other organs or bones. The wreck may cause broken bones that would compress the spi...
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... the nerves will react and possibly reach peripheral neuropathy.
Peripheral neuropathy is a serious condition that can be fixed in multiple ways. If an individual is having trouble and experiencing more than one of the symptoms such as pain or muscle weakness, he or she should make a visit to see their doctor and discuss the possible reasoning behind it. A doctor knows best and can prescribe the necessary medications or treatments to help the patient feel better and hopefully stop the patient from having paralysis. There are ways to prevent this condition and they should be taken into consideration.
Works Cited
"Peripheral Neuropathy Fact Sheet." : National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2014.
"Peripheral Neuropathy." Definition. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2014.
Wood, Debra., “Peripheral Neuropathy.” 2013. Print.
warm) in the left upper and lower extremities; decreased strength and movement of the right upper and lower extremities and of the left abdominal muscles; lack of triceps and biceps reflexes in the right upper extremity; atypical response of patellar, Achilles (hyper) reflexes in the right lower extremity; abnormal cremasteric reflex in the right groin; fracture in cervical vertebrae #7; and significant swelling in the C7-T12 region of the spinal canal (Signs and symptoms, n.d.). The objective complaint of a severe headache could also be consistent with a spinal cord injury (Headache, nausea, and vomiting,
Pain behind the ear on the affected side of the face which may occur a day or two before the paralysis begins.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease affecting the myelination of the central nervous system, leading to numerous issues regarding muscle strength, coordination, balance, sensation, vision, and even some cognitive defects. Unfortunately, the etiology of MS is not known, however, it is generally thought of and accepted as being an autoimmune disorder inside of the central nervous system (Rietberg, et al. 2004). According to a study (Noonan, et al. 2010) on the prevalence of MS, the disease affects more than 1 million people across the world, and approximately 85% of those that are affected will suffer from unpredictably occurring sessions of exacerbations and remissions. The report (Noonan, et al. 2010) found that the prevalence of MS was much higher in women than in men, and that it was also higher in non-Hispanic whites than in other racial or ethnic groups throughout the 3 regions of the United States that were studied.
Peripheral and central mechanisms involving nerve lesions and their input are substantial when perceiving phantom pain. Due to the impairment of peripheral nerves in the process of amputation, regenerative sprouting of damaged axons occurs and the activity rate of inflamed C-fibres and demyelinated A-fibres spontaneously increases (Flor, 2002). As a consequence of this nerve injury, a neuroma, which is a mass of pruned and tangled axons, may form in the residual limb producing abnormal (ectopic) activity (Katz, 1992). Flor, Nikolajsen and Jenson (2006) proposed that ectopic discharge from a neuroma in the stump illustrates abnormal afferent input to the spinal cord, which is a possible mechanism for unpro...
In most cases the condition that leads to the neuropathy would need to be treated and may help control if not complete alleviate neuropathy. For example, controlling the blood sugar can reduce the neuropathy in diabetics. There are steps a person should follow at home to prevent infections. Inspecting the hands and feet on a regular basis. Never go barefoot or wear to tight fitting footwear. Decreasing or quitting smoking can help to improve the neuropathy sensations as well. There are also medications that can be prescribe to treat this condition. Anticonvulsants, antidepressants, and opioids are some oral medications that can be prescribed. There are also topical medications such as lidocaine patches or capsaicin cream can be used to decrease the pain caused by neuropathy. Physical therapy along with acupuncture have also been used to treat neuropathy.
In the United States 54 million people have a disability and only 15 percent were born with a disability (Jaeger & Bowman, 2005). If a person lives long enough, it is statistically likely that they will develop some kind of disability in their advancing years (Jaeger & Bowman, 2005). At some point in your life you could have experience a fractured bone, a minor cut, or had some type of surgery. Imagine after some minor injury that you may not even remember and then experiencing a constant pain so agonizing that no amount of pain medication can make you comfortable (Lang & Moskovitz, 2003). Some additional symptoms that you may also experience are severe burning pain, changes in bone and skin, excessive sweating, tissue swelling and extreme sensitivity to touch (Juris, 2005). These symptoms are associated with a disease that is called Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD) but more recently termed as complex regional pain syndrome, type 1 (CRPS 1) (Juris, 2005). For simplification purposes this disease will be referred to as RSD throughout this paper.
The effects include paralysis of a limb or one side of the body and disturbances of speech and vision. The nature and extent of damage depends on the size and location of the affected blood vessels. The main causes are cerebral infarction (approx. 85%) and spontaneous intracranial haemorrhage (15%) (Waugh & Grant, 2010).
A hypothesis that can be made from the patient’s report is that she is suffering from cervical radiculopathy, or a nerve root lesion. Symptoms that describe cervical radiculopathy include: arm pain in a dermatome distribution, pain increased by extension, rotation, and/or side flexion, possible relief of pain from arm positioned overhead, affected sensation, altered hand function, no spasticity, and no change to gait or bowel and bladder function (Magee, 2008, p. 142). These symptoms correlate to what the patient reported as a result of her injury. She stated that her pain is in the posterolateral upper and lower arm with aching and paresthesia in the thumb and index finger, which is in the dermatome pattern of cervical root 5 and 6 (C5, C6) (Magee, 2008, p. 25). She also reports lancinating pain with extension or rotation to the right of her head.
Vitamin B-12 is essential for energy production as well as influencing the way your body uses carbohydrates.
Type 1. This type occurs after an injury or trauma with no known damage to a nerve.
The spinal cord is a major channel in the body where motor and sensory information travels from the brain to the body. It has white matter that surrounds a central gray matter. The gray matter is where most of the neuronal cells are located. Injury to the spinal cord will affect the conduction of information across any part of the spinal cord where the damage is located (Maynard et al., 1997). This will often result in permanent disability of a certain muscle or region of the body (Meletis et al., 2008) and a loss of tissue where the damage is located (Peng et al., 2009). As of now, there is no treatment for spinal cord injury expect for steroids. All steroids can do is provide protect of the spinal cord from secondary injury for specific patients (Peng et al., 2009).
Vitamin, any of the organic compounds required by the body in small amounts for metabolism, to protect health, and for proper growth in children. Vitamins also assist in the formation of hormones, blood cells, nervous-system chemicals, and genetic material. The various vitamins are not chemically related, and most differ in their physiological actions. They generally act as catalysts, combining with proteins to create metabolically active enzymes that in turn produce hundreds of important chemical reactions throughout the body. Without vitamins, many of these reactions would slow down or cease. The intricate ways in which vitamins act on the body, however, are still far from clear.
The most common type is Peripheral Neuropathy. It is also referred to as distal symmetric neuropathy or sensorimotor neuropathy. In this type, the legs, feet, toes, arms, and hands experience pain and loss of sensation. Typically, the lower extremities are involved before the upper extremities and a loss of reflexes is common. It is with this type of neuropathy that ulcers, wounds, infections, and in severe cases, amputation is most common (Dyck, Feldmen, & Vinick).
The sciatic nerve supplies information about movements of the leg and sends information about sensations back to the brain. The sciatic nerve is quite large, in fact, it is the largest peripheral nerve in the body. The sciatic nerve is formed from the lower segments of the spinal cord; it is made up of the lumbar and sacral nerve roots from the spine. The nerves are compressed, and people then experience the symptoms of pain, weakness, and numbness.
Vitamin B12 deficiency is common in the United States and often responsible for anemia and neurologic symptoms, particularly in the elderly.