Traumatic Injury for Gamers

Neck Injuries As you may imagine, there are a lot of important things passing through the neck, including the spinal cord, larynx and trachea, phrenic nerve, brachial plexus, carotid artery, jugular vein, cranial nerves, oesophagus and pharynx, thyroid gland, and stellate ganglion. Of course, many of these may be damaged simultaneously. Possible symptoms for damage to each of these are listed below. Not all will necessarily be present. Spinal cord: paralysis, partial paralysis (no surprise !) Larynx and trachea (you breathe through your trachea): spitting blood, a sucking neck wound (see chest wounds), hoarseness, difficulty breathing, high-pitched, noisy respiration (stridor). Brachial Plexus: numbness and/or partial paralysis in an arm. Carotid artery: decreased level of consciousness, heavy bleeding (which may compress the trachea, causing difficulty breathing), and hypovolemic shock. Jugular vein: heavy bleeding, hypovolemic shock. Cranial nerves: inability to shrug a shoulder or rotate chin to opposite shoulder, paralysis of the tongue, hoarseness, and difficulty in swallowing. Oesophagus and pharynx (connects to your stomach): difficulty swallowing, bloody saliva, sucking neck wound. Stellate ganglion: dilated pupil. Thyroid gland, phrenic nerve: no special short term effects. Also, damage to the muscles in the neck will mean that the patient is unable to hold his head upright.

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