Spinal Trauma and Medical problems that lead to increased necessity for Spinal implants

·         Explain several traumatic events that highlight an increased necessity for implanting a artificial body part (mainly joints). Make sure to split the trauma or diseases between the three main artificial parts mentioned in the introduction

·         Spinal injuries/disease/degenerative processes

o   Disk degeneration

§  Disk Degeneration is a process that involves the deterioration of the spinal disk over the period of one’s life. It is a natural process that occurs to everyone but varies with each person according to intake levels of medicine and calcium and other minerals.

o   Ankylosing Spondylitis:

§  Ankylosing Spondylitis is a type of arthritis specifically related to the spine instead of generalized parts of the body. Spondylitis causes swelling of the spaces between the vertebras which are mainly the disks. This can cause immense back pain, stiffness, inability to release the lock that has formed in the back and further complications.

o   Trauma (serious breakage or displacement)

§  Spinal trauma can be caused by various accidents. Spinal trauma can read to broken disks, disturbance to the disks, displacement of disks, and problems on a more grand scale.

o   Stenosis

§  Stenosis is a condition in which your spine starts to narrow which puts great pressure on nerves and your spinal cord causing immense pain and inability to move. This may require surgical replacement of vertebral disks due to the fact that Stenosis has a chance of occurring due to disk problems.

o   Herniation

§  A Herniation is a condition in which a disk slips out of place and stops supporting the spinal column thus hitting a nerve and leading to pain.

                                            Vertebral disk injury or wear out

                                                                This is a picture of a spine that has undergone serious trauma which has     

caused part of the spine to completely break off from the alignment which is avery serious condition.

This is an image of a herniated disk

This is an image of two spines. However, one has been affected by ankylosing spondylitis which calls for immediate replacement surgery due to inability to move the spine.