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Introduction to Spinal Cord Injury

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a complete or partial lesion to the spinal cord. The result of SCI is functional loss (sensory motor and autonomic dysfunction); severity depends on the level and completeness of the lesion. The physical ability of persons with SCI is classified according to the amount of function retained. Common categories are paraplegia (SCI affecting level T2 and below, trunk and lower extremities involved) and quadriplegia/tetraplegia (SCI affecting level T1 or above, all four extremities and trunk involved).

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This fact sheet was last updated on 03-02-2007.