Treatment starts with restricting further motion of the spine and maintaining adequate blood pressure. Corticosteroids have not been found to be useful. Other interventions vary depending on the location and extent of the injury, from bed rest to surgery. In many cases, spinal cord injuries require long-term physical and occupational therapy, especially if it interferes with activities of daily living. In the United States, about 12,000 people a year survive a spinal cord injury. The most commonly affected group are young adult males. SCI has seen great improvements in its care since the middle of the 20th century. Research into potential treatments includes stem cell implantation, hypothermia, engineered materials for tissue support, epidural spinal stimulation, and wearable robotic exoskeletons. Classification
Spinal cord injury can be traumatic or nontraumatic, and can be classified into three types based on cause: mechanical forces, toxic, and ischemic (from lack of blood flow). The damage can also be divided into primary and secondary injury: the cell death that occurs immediately in the original injury, and biochemical cascades that are initiated by the original insult and cause further tissue damage. These secondary injury pathways include the ischemic cascade, inflammation, swelling, cell suicide, and neurotransmitter imbalances. They can take place for minutes or weeks following the injury.At each level of the spinal column, spinal nerves branch off from either side of the spinal cord and exit between a pair of vertebrae, to innervate a specific part of the body.
Nonocular (not eye-related) side and adverse effects can include neuropsychiatric symptoms like subtle concentration and memory problems, subtle decision-making problems, drowsiness, and more pronounced disorientation to time and place, confusion, disturbances of speech and movement, hyperactivity, restlessness, and seizures. Temporary psychosis can develop that includes hallucinations, particularly when higher doses are used in children or older adults on other anticholinergic medications. Patients with dementia of the Alzheimers type can experience worsening of their dementia symptoms. Additional side and adverse effects can include skin flushing, skin rashes, gastrointestinal problems, increased heart beat (tachycardia), increased body temperature (hyperpyrexia), blood vessel dilation, urinary retention, dry mouth and reduced sweating, and reduced bronchial secretions. Severe poisoning with cyclopentolate may result in coma, paralysis of breathing, and death. Cyclopentolate derivatives can be used as an antidote for organophosphate poisoning.Lethality of cyclopentolate has been studied in rodents. The LD50 (the dose at which 50% of animals die from the drug) is approximately 4000 mg/kg in rats and 960 mg/kg in mice. Readily recognizable symptoms of overdose include tachycardia, dizziness, dry mouth, behavioral disturbances, uncoordination, and drowsiness. Cycloplegia is necessary in cases of suspected latent hyperopia (or "over-focusing") so that an ophthalmologist or optometrist can accurately measure how much a person has to flex their focusing muscle (accommodation) in order to see in the distance and up-close. Correction of latent hyperopia in children can often prevent, or sometimes correct, unwanted eye turns (strabismus), some forms of refractive amblyopia, and may alleviate eye strain or frontal headaches caused by prolonged near-work.