What are your Nerves:
Your nervous system is also responsible for nearly all actions of your body. The nervous system controls your pain and pleasure, your movement as well as all involuntary movements that go on behind the scenes. You have nerves all over your body. Clearly, our nerves are very complicated but yet essential to all of your body functions.
We have all experienced a twitching muscle from time to time, or felt your fingers go numb of a cold day, these are nerves acting in an abnormal way. Generally, when you warm your hands up the feeling in your fingers will return as normal. However, sometimes, if the fingers have been overly exposed to cold temperatures, the nerve could become damaged and the senses do not return.
This can happen will any part of your nervous system.
- Neurotmesis – Most severe form of nerve damage, resulting to complete loss of nerve function.
- Axonotmesis – Less severe form of nerve damage, resulting from crush or too much pressure from injuries.
- Neurapraxia – Mildest form of nerve damage, allowing complete recovery within just days, weeks, or months.
Learn more about the Nervous System here:
http://cal.vet.upenn.edu/projects/saortho/chapter_65/65mast.htm
Causes of Nerve Damage
With at least 100 types of damage to the nerves, the causes of damage vary time case to case. While the most nerve damage cases are more common with age and in people with diabetes, any form of invasive operation carries a very high risk of nerve damage.
Causes of Damage to Nerves that may have been caused through negligence include:
- Trauma/Compression
- Toxic substances and Drug side-effects (i.e. medications such as chemotherapy; toxic substances such as mercury, lead, arsenic, etc)
- Contracting Infectious diseases (i.e. HIV, Hepatitis C, etc.)
- Sepsis of Infection
Damage can also be caused in many other ways too:
- Cancer
- Motor-Neuron diseases (i.e. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis)
- Nutritional deficiencies including Vitamins B6 and B12 deficiency
Symptoms of a Nerve Damage
Nerve damage can have various symptoms, depending on the location and the type of affected nerves. Some of the more common symptoms are highlighted below:
Sensory nerve damage symptoms:
- pain
- numbness
- sensitivity
- burning sensation
- tingling sensation
- problems with positional awareness
Motor nerve damage symptoms:
- muscle atrophy
- twitching
- weakness
- paralysis
Autonomic nerve damage symptoms:
- dry eyes and mouth
- sexual dysfunction
- inability to feel chest pain (stroke)
- too little/too much sweating
- bladder dysfunction
- lightheadedness
- constipation
Treatment for Nerve Damage
Nerve damage can’t be entirely cured in most cases. However, there are number of treatments that can possibly reduce its symptoms which are:
- pain relievers
- tricyclic anti-depressant drugs
- anti-seizure drugs
In many instances, your doctor may prescribe treatment for underlying diseases that may cause nerve damage. Goals of these treatments include:
- changing your medications (if it’s causing nerve damage)
- surgery or physical therapy for nerve compression/trauma
- providing medications (for autoimmune diseases)
- Lifestyle changes
It is important that a clear cause and understanding of your nerve damage is determined as early as possible.
We are here to assist you in preparing your notes in a cohesive manner and provide guidance in retaining a second opinion or expert report. These steps will help you decide if you have a claim where the injuries were as a result of a medical injury.