FALL PROTECTION

• Spinal cord injuries (SCI): This damages the spinal cord and results in a loss of mobility or feeling. Servere SCI often causes paralysis (loss of control over voluntary movement and muscles of the body), a loss of sensation and reflexes below the point of injury, including autonomic activities such as breathing, bowel and bladder control. SCI patients are also prone to developing secondary medical problems including bladder infection, lung infection and bedsores. Besides a loss of sensation or motor functioning, individuals with SCI also experience below and/or bladder dysfunction. Sexual functioning is frequently disrupted or lost with SCI. Men may have their fertility affected, while women's fertility often is not. Spinal injuries can result in a loss of many involuntary functions, including the ability to regulate blood pressure effectively, reduced control of body temperature, inability to sweat and chronic pain. Although these might not sound like serious side effects, extreme variations in blood pressure or body temperature can, in fact, be fatal.
  
  

• Concussion: The potentially most sinister type of injury is a concussion.

• Arm injuries: In case of a fall backwards with an outstanding arm, one is likely to injure the wrist. The two bones in the forearm (radius and ulna) are the most likely to break as well as the small bone in the wrist behind the thumb bone (navicula). A naviculer fracture should be properly diagnosed, because it can lead to chronic pain and extended disability  in the wrist if left untreated.
  
  

• Knee injuries: A hard blow to the knee can be cause of misalignment of the knee cap, which in turn can lead to a chronic knee pain by wearing down of cartilage. This condition is known as 'chondromalacia patellae'. Damage to the anterior cruciate ligament (at the front of the knee below the knee cap) often requires surgery.