A quadriplegic is a person with a spinal cord injury that affects all four limbs, whereas a paraplegic has an injury that affects the lower limbs. That's an in a nutshell description. Basically spinal cord injuries vary a great deal because the spinal cord is long and injury can occur at any point on it. Injuries at the cervical level usually result in quadriplegia .
Spinal cord injuries may affect trunk control, bladder function, respiratory function and heat/temperature control, among other things. They may result in loss of sensation or function - or both. Injuries can also be complete or incomplete which causes variations.
Confused yet? Well, there are alot of variations from person to person as you can see.
So here's a link to spinal cord 101 with more specific information.
[This is a repost from September 2006 in response to email requests]
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