• World Neurosurg · Mar 2013

    Case Reports

    Cauda equina syndrome associated with longstanding instrumented spinal fusion.

    • J D Bartleson, Gary M Miller, and Giuseppe Lanzino.
    • Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minnesota, USA. bartleson.john@mayo.edu
    • World Neurosurg. 2013 Mar 1;79(3-4):594.e5-8.

    BackgroundThis study sought to describe a patient with a slowly progressive cauda equina syndrome (CES) who had imaging findings of the CES that occurs as a rare complication of ankylosing spondylitis (AS), but whose spinal fusion was due to thoracolumbosacral instrumentation, not spondyloarthropathy.MethodsA 53-year-old woman presented with a 5-year history of slowly progressive CES affecting sensory and sphincter more than motor function many years after sequential instrumented fusions of her thoracic and then lumbosacral spine. Imaging studies showed enlargement of the caudal sac and dorsal arachnoid diverticula eroding into posterior elements of the lumbar spine similar to findings reported in patients with CES in longstanding AS. Despite extensive evaluation, no other cause for her CES was found. We postulate that our patient's CES is on the same pathophysiologic basis as that proposed for patients with longstanding AS (fibrosis of peridural tissues with increase in transmitted cerebrospinal fluid pulse pressure). Because of reports that patients with CES due to longstanding AS are helped by placement of a lumboperitoneal shunt, our patient underwent this procedure.ResultsSeventeen months postoperatively, the patient's symptoms and neurologic examination are unchanged, and her previous slow progression has been halted.ConclusionsThis case strongly suggests that extensive surgical thoracolumbosacral fusion can, rarely and after many years, be associated with lumbosacral nerve root damage and a slowly progressive CES that is similar to that seen in patients with spinal fusion due to longstanding AS.Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…