Diseases of the spinal cord

Extract

• The most important thing to assess is whether symptoms originating from the spinal cord are caused by an injury or a disease.
  • Symptoms caused by an injury appear acutely, and the cause is usually known Acute treatment of traumatic spinal cord injuries1. The patient should be referred for emergency treatment.
  • Symptoms caused by diseases usually develop more slowly, and the urgency varies.
• When the symptoms have been localized as originating from the spinal cord, the aim should be to determine the level of possible lesion.
• The majority of spinal cord diseases are caused by local changes, a smaller number of them are disseminated, i.e. diffuse.
• In diffuse spinal cord diseases there is no sensory level, but in spinal cord compression originating from an injury or disease it can often be found and it guides the diagnostics especially in acute situations.

Read full article of Diseases of the spinal cord

Search terms

Abscess, C72.0, D33.4, D43.4, Epidural Abscess, G82, G83, G95, G95.2, G99.2, Hematoma, Epidural, Spinal, Myelitis, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Orthopaedics, Paralysis, Paraparesis, Quadriplegia, Spinal Canal, Spinal Cord, Spinal Cord Compression, Spinal Cord Diseases, Spinal Cord Injuries, Spine, Vitamin B 12 Deficiency, flaccid paralysis, inflammatory myelopathy, metabolic spinal cord disease, native x-ray of spine, saddle block anesthesia, sensory border, spinal cord neoplasms, spinal shock, upper motor neuron damage, vascular disease of the spinal cord