ABSTRACT
The Edwin Smith papyrus, written 4000 years ago and the first known account of spinal injury, documents six cases of injury to the vertebral column. Two of the cases had limb paralysis with urinary incontinence and were considered “an ailment not to be treated”, but there is no clear evidence of an understanding of the anatomical basis of the injury at this time (Breasted, 1922; Hughes, 1988). Hippocrates discussed vertebral dislocation and its relationship to paralysis of the apparently still, but did not appreciate the role of the spinal cord (Adams, 1849). In the first century ad, Celsus (Spencer, 1935) noted that death followed quickly when the cervical cord was injured, but a century followed before Galen showed experimentally that interruption of the spinal cord caused paralysis and loss of sensation (Walker, 1951).
