Skip to content
Research Article Open access CC BY 3.0

Very Early Detected Asymptomatic Posttraumatic Syrinx in a Patient with Spinal Cord Injury

Hakan Alkan, Necmettin Yıldız, Ozlem Ercidogan, Necdet Catalbas, Füsun Ardıç

Journal of Scientific Research and Reports · pp. 639–644 · Published 6 Jan 2014

10.9734/JSRR/2014/7571

Abstract

Aims: Posttraumatic syringomyelia (PTS) is a devastating complication of spinal cord injury (SCI) because of its association with delayed neurological deterioration. In our case report, diagnosis of very early detected asymptomatic syrinx in a patient with incomplete SCI was made incidentally according to cervical spinal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) performed for unrelated purposes 32 days after the injury and conservative management was considered with periodic spinal MRI and neurologic examination to monitor the progression of syrinx during four years follow up. The present case report is the first to define syrinx at a very early stage in a patient with traumatic incomplete SCI. Presentation of Case: 19 year-old male patient sustained C4 and C5 linear vertebral lamina fractures and adjacent cord concussion due to a diving accident four years ago. On presentation at the rehabilitation unit, he was diagnosed as C5 American Spinal Cord Injury Association (ASIA) grade C tetraplegia according to his physical examination. On completion of the comprehensive rehabilitation programme, the patient showed gradual neurological improvement and was diagnosed as C5 ASIA D SCI. During four years of follow up syrinx had good prognosis by means of both clinical and radiologic findings. There were no symptoms or signs related to PTS, also periodic cervical spinal MRI performed annually showed no change in the size of syrinx. Conclusion: We conclude that posttraumatic syrinx should be considered even in the earlier stages of the postinjury recovery period and syrinx which are particularly limited and asymptomatic could be followed up conservatively with close clinical and radiological observation.

Spinal cord injury posttraumatic syrinx.

References (14)

  1. 1 Post-traumatic syringomyelia: a review [DOI]
  2. 2 Post-traumatic syringomyelia (cystic myelopathy): a prospective study of 449 patients with spinal cord injury. [DOI]
  3. 3 A clinical magnetic resonance imaging study of the traumatised spinal cord more than 20 years following injury [DOI]
  4. 4 Posttraumatic syringomyelia: predisposing factors [DOI]
  5. 5 Post-traumatic syringomyelia, an update [DOI]
  6. 6 Post-traumatic spinal cord cysts evaluated by magnetic resonance imaging [DOI]
  7. 7 Post-Traumatic Syringomyelia [DOI]
  8. 8 The value of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) in the follow-up management of spinal injury [DOI]
  9. 9 Chronic pain after spinal cord injury: an expedient diagnostic approach [DOI]
  10. 10 Posttraumatic Syringomyelia; A Review of 21 Cases [DOI]
  11. 11 Early onset posttraumatic cystic myelopathy complicating spinal cord injury [DOI]
  12. 12 Posttraumatic syringomyelia: Profound neuronal loss, yet preserved function [DOI]
  13. 13 Cystic cord lesions and neurological deterioration in spinal cord injury: operative considerations based on magnetic resonance imaging [DOI]
  14. 14 [Posttraumatic syringomyelia developing soon after spinal cord injury. A case report].

Cited by 0

No indexed citations yet.

Related research

Article metrics

Real usage data collected on this platform.

102

Page views

0

PDF downloads

47

Outbound clicks

0

Citations

Views over time

Views by country

Approximate, from request IP at view time — not citizenship or institution. Countries with fewer than 5 views are grouped as "Other".

Traffic sources

Referring site, by host.

Views and downloads exclude known bots/crawlers. Citations combines this platform's own DOI-resolved index with each external source's own reported total — see Cited by above for individually listed citing works. Last refreshed 0 seconds ago.