Your skin - the facts
Your skin needs extra care after a spinal cord injury. The lack of sensation and reflex activity in your post-spinal cord injury skin means that nature’s warning system has been turned off.
Your skin is typically subjected to many forces and circumstances and it is important that you understand how your skin works.
Your skin is not only your largest organ, it’s also the most visible. It makes up 16% of your total weight, and ranges from as thin as 0.5mm to as thick as 4.0mm thick, depending on where it is on your body.
Your skin has three layers:
- epidermis
- dermis
- hypodermis or subcutaneous tissue
The epidermis, which has multiple layers of cells, is the uppermost layer.
The dermis lies directly beneath your epidermis. The dermis consists of connective tissue, which contains the following:
blood vessels
glands, e.g. sweat and oil glands
hair follicles, from which hairs grow
receptors or sensors that pick up sensations.
Underneath this layer is the hypodermis or subcutaneous layer. This also consists of connective tissue, most of which are adipose (fat) cells.
