Spinal Cord Disease and Acute Bilateral Limb Weakness Flashcards
What tract does joint position and vibration?
Dorsal column
What tract does pain and temperature?
Spinothalamic
What tract does movement?
Corticospinal
What is myelopathy?
Any neurological deficit that is caused by a lesion in the spinal cord itself
What is myelitis?
Inflammation of the spinal cord
What is cervical spondylytic myelopathy (CSM)?
Myelopathy caused by arthritic changes (spondylolysis) of the cervical spine, which results in narrowing of the spinal canal (spinal stenosis) ultimately causing compression of the spinal cord
What is a spinal cord stroke?
Occlusion of the blood vessels supplying the spinal cord or within the spinal cord itself
What are causes of a spinal cord infarction?
- Atherosclerosis
- Thromboembolic disease - AF, MI
- Aortic dissection
- Systemic hypotension
- Thrombotic haematological disease
- Hyperviscisity syndrome
- Vasculitis
- Endovascular procedures
- Decompression sickness
What symptoms are seen in spinal cord ischaemia?
Sudden onset/several hours
-
Sensation
- Sudden onset Back pain with circumerencial tightness
- Numbness/paraesthesia (below lesion)
-
Motor
- Weakness
-
Autonomic
- Urinary/faecal incontinence - retetnion followed by bladder and bowel incontiencen as spinal shock settles
What spinal artery is most commonly implicated in spinal cord ischaemia (anterior or posterior)?
Anterior more commonly than posterior, as sections have poor collateral supply (especially 2nd - 4th thoracic segments)
What is the most common cause of spinal cord ischaemia?
Extravertebral feeder artery occulsion or ortic occlusion/dissection/clamping during surgery
- Atheromatous disease
- Thromboembolic disease - sub-acute endocarditis, AF, MI
- Aortic disssection
- Systemic hypotension
If the anterior spinal cord artery was affected, what signs might you find in someone with spinal cord infarction?
Anterior cord syndrome
- Complete motor paralysis below level of lesion - corticospinal tract
- Loss of pain + temp sensation at + below the level of lesion - spinothalamic tract
- Retained proprioception, light touch and vibratory sensation - intact dorsal columns
-
Autonomic dysfunction
- Hypotension (either orthostatic or frank hypotension)
- Sexual dysfunction
- Bowel and bladder dysfunction
- Areflexia, flaccid internal and external anal sphincter, urinary retention and intestinal obstruction - infarcted anterior horn - like a LMN injury
What are features of a central cord syndrome that can occur in trauma, syrinx or cervical spondylosis?
- Paresis more severe in upper extremities than in lower/sacral region
- Loss of pain and temperature sensation in a capelike distribution over the upper neck, shoulders, and upper trunk
- Light touch, position, and vibratory sensation relatively preserved
How would you investigate suspected spinal cord infarction?
CT/MRI
How would you manage someone with spinal cord infarction?
- Supportive
- Risk reduction - optimise BP, bed rest, reverese hypovolaemia, vascular risk
- OT/PT input
If someone had occlusion of their central sulcal spinal artery, what spinal cord syndrome may present?
Brown-Sequard syndrome
Prognosis of ischaemic myelopathy
Unless major recovery in 24 hours chance of major recovery is low
What is transverse myelitis?
Acute inflammation of gray and white matter in one or more adjacent spinal cord segments, usually thoracic
What are causes of transverse myelitis?
- Idiopathic
- MS
-
Viral/bacterial infection
- Lyme
- Syphilis
- Autoimmune
- Malignancy
- Post vaccination
What are viral causes of transverse myelitis?
- VZV
- HSV
- CMV
- EBV
- Influenza
- Echovirus
- HIV
- Hep A
- Rubella
What are autoimmune causes of transverse myelitis?
- SLE
- Sjogren’s
- Sarcoidosis
What is transverse myelitis most commonly due to?
MS
What can transverse myelitis occur with in Devics syndrome?
Optic neuritis - Form of MS
What are symptoms of transverse myelitis?
Hours to days
- Pain in the neck, back or head
- Bandlike tighness around chest/abdomen
- Weakness
- Paraesthesiae
- Numbness - feet and legs
What are signs of transverse myelitis?
Sensorimotor myelopathy (UMN lesion)
- Paraplegia - pyramidal distribution
- Loss of sensation below lesion
- Urinary retention/Faecal incontinence
- Occasional sparing of proprioception and vibration
- Babinski +
- Clonus
- Hyperreflexia
- L’Hermittes positive
What investigations might you consider doing in someone with features of transverse myelitis?
- MRI - cord swelling and oedema at affected levels
- LP - excess monocytes, increased protein, IgG elevated
- CXR
- Serology - mycoplasma, lyme
- HIV test
- ANA
- B12, folate, copper levels
- ESR
How would you manage someone with transverse myelitis?
- Treat cause
- High-dose steroids
- Consider plasma exchange
- Consider Antibiotics
- Consider Immunosuppression
What is cervical spondylosos?
Degeneration of annulus fibrosis of cervical IVDs and osteophytes causing narrowing of spinal canal and therefore potential subsequent myeopathy/radiculopathy.
What is radiculopathy?
Means disease affecting nerve roots and plexopathy, the brachial or lumbosacral plexus.
What are symptoms of cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM)?
-
Neck pain, radiating down arms
- Crepitus when moving neck
- Arm pain (stabbing or dull
- Paraesthesia - both hands and feet
- Spastic leg weekenss/weak clumsy hands
- Foot drop and gait abnormality.
What are signs of cervical spondylotic myelopathy?
UMN lesion - deficits may be asymmetric, nonsegmental, and aggravated by cough or Valsalva maneuvers
- Lhermittes phenomenon - neck flexion may produce tingling down spine
- Gradual spastic paresis
- Paresthesias
- Hyperreflexia
What are signs of cervical spondylotic myeloradiculopathy?
Combined UMN/LMN signs
- L’hermittes phenomenon
- UMN features below lesion level - Spastic weakness, Hyperreflexive below lesion, urinary incontinence
- Radiculopathic (LMN) features at lesion level - radicular pain, flaccid weakness, hyporeflexia, and muscle atrophy
- Ataxia - due to loss of proprioception
What are signs of cervical spondylotic radiculopathy?
LMN radiculopathic signs
- Radicular pain - shooting in nature
- Flaccid weakness
- Hyporeflexia - dull
- Eventual Muscle atrophy
- Fasciculations
What is the meaning of radicular pain?
Pain “radiated” along the dermatome(sensory distribution) of a nerve due to inflammation or other irritation of the nerve root (radiculopathy) at its connection to the spinal column
How would you investigate someone with cervical spondylotic myelopathy?
MRI/CT
How would you manage someone with cervical spondylotic myelopathy?
- Conservative management
- Firm neck collar
-
Injection therapy
- Interlaminar cervical epidural injections
- Tranforminal injections
- Consider decompressive surgery - discectomy, laminectomy, laminoplasty
What is important when trying to establish a cause of acute bilateral limb weakness?
-
Where is the lesion?
- UMN/LMN?
- Sensory level?
- Bowel/bladder control loss
-
What is the lesion?
- Sudden/rapid progressive/slow onset?
- Signs of infection?
What are symptoms of acute spinal cord compression?
- Bilateral leg weakness
- Sensory level
- Preceding back pain
- Bladder/bowel signs - late manifestation
What are signs of spinal cord compression?
- Normal findings above level of lesion
- UMN signs below lesion - pyramidal spastic paresis (e.g. legs), hyperreflexia, weakness, babinski positive, clonus
- Can have LMN signs at level of lesion - radicular pain, flaccid weakness, muscle wasting, fasciculations, hyporeflexive
- Bowel/bladder retention - overflow incontinence, painless retention
How does bladder/anal sphincter tone change in someone with spinal cord compression?
Initially starts as hesitency and frequency, and progresses to painless retention due to spastic tone of sphincters due to UMN lesion, coupled with weakness of detrusor muscle. Any incontinence that occurs is due to overflow incontinence
Faecal incontinence occurs due to loss of autonomic bowel function, leading to overflow incontinence
What are causes of spinal cord compression?
-
Vertebral body neoplasm
- Secondary malignancy in spine (bone) - breast, bronchus, brostate, byroid, bidney
- Myeloma
-
Disc and vertebral lesions
- Disc prolpase
- Trauma
- Chronic degenrative disease - osteoarthritis osteophytes
-
Inflammation/infection
- Epidural abscess
- TB (pott’s paraplegia)
- Cervical disc prolapse
-
Other
- Haematoma (epidural haemorhage - patients on warfarin)
- Intrinsic cord tumour
- Atlanto-axial subluxation (RA)
- Paget’s
- Bone cyst