Citations
Thoracic spinal cord herniation is a rare disease cause of progressive myelopathy. Magnetic resonance image is a useful tool to diagnose preoperatively. Operation is a treatment of option. Sixty-six-year-old female visited Dong-A University Medical Center for progressive gait disturbance with falling tendency to right side. She had radiating pain and tingling sense on both leg. Sense of touch and temperature was decreased below T6 level. Both hip and knee motor power were grade IV. Magnetic resonance imaging scan showed anterior displacement of the spinal cord at T4-T5 vertebral level. Under the diagnosis of thoracic spinal cord herniation with dura defect, operation was performed for the patient with intraoperative neuromonitoring. Laminectomy at T4 and T5 level was done, and intradural exploration of the spinal cord revealed dura defect about 25mm×8mm in size. Spinal cord was released under microscope and dura defect was repaired with Lyoplant. The patient's symptom improved after the surgical procedure, but touch and temperature sense under T6 level had unchanged.
Citations
Although they usually originate from peripheral problems, foot drop is caused by lesions affecting the neural pathway related to dorsiflexor muscles, whether of central or peripheral origin. We present a patient with sudden isolated foot drop caused by a small infarct in the primary motor cortex mimicking a peripheral origin. This report indicates that patients presenting isolated foot drop should be managed carefully and the possibility of both central and peripheral causes should be considered. To our knowledge, this is the first report of sudden isolated foot drop caused by a cortical infarction mimicking lumbar radiculopathy.
Citations
Spinal arachnoid cyst is a rare cause of myelopathy secondary to spinal cord compression. We report a case presenting extradural arachnoid cyst of probable traumatic origin leading to irreversible neurological deficits including paraparesis and neurogenic bladder. The patient presented progressive paraparesis and voiding difficulty. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the spine revealed long segmental cystic lesion of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) signal intensity at dorsal extramedullary space of T11 to L3 level suggesting arachnoid cyst with diffuse cord compression. On the operation, an ovoid shaped dural defect was identified at right sided dorsolateral aspect of the dura mater between nerve root sleeves at T11 and T12 level. The patient was treated by microsurgical repair of the dural defect and intraoperative findings revealed no further leakage of CSF. The neurological status of the patient was stationary on follow-up examination postoperatively. We postulate that delayed-onset post-traumatic extradural arachnoid cyst should be taken into consideration on the differential diagnosis of intrapinal cysts.
Citations