• Prince Antwi, Ryan Grant, Gregory Kuzmik, and Khalid Abbed.
• Department of Neurosurgery, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA. Electronic address: prince.antwi@yale.edu.
• World Neurosurg. 2018 May 1; 113: 33-36.

Background"White cord syndrome" is a very rare condition thought to be due to acute reperfusion of chronically ischemic areas of the spinal cord. Its hallmark is the presence of intramedullary hyperintense signal on T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging sequences in a patient with unexplained neurologic deficits following spinal cord decompression surgery. The syndrome is rare and has been reported previously in 2 patients following anterior cervical decompression and fusion. We report an additional case of this complication.Case DescriptionA 68-year-old man developed acute left-sided hemiparesis after posterior cervical decompression and fusion for cervical spondylotic myelopathy. The patient improved with high-dose steroid therapy.ConclusionsThe rare white cord syndrome following either anterior cervical decompression and fusion or posterior cervical decompression and fusion may be due to ischemic-reperfusion injury sustained by chronically compressed parts of the spinal cord. In previous reports, patients have improved following steroid therapy and acute rehabilitation.Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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