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Spontaneous spinal cord infarction: a practical approach
  1. George Thomas1,
  2. Vafa Alakbarzade2,
  3. Yezen Sammaraiee2,
  4. Ioana Cociasu2,
  5. Catherine Dalton2,
  6. Anthony C Pereira2
  1. 1 Department of Older Persons’ Medicine, James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough, UK
  2. 2 Department of Neurology, St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Vafa Alakbarzade, Department of Neurology, St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London SW17 0QT, UK; vafa.alakbarzade.10{at}ucl.ac.uk

Abstract

Spontaneous spinal cord infarction is significantly less common than cerebrovascular disease. Because of the tight anatomical distribution of pathways in the cord, small spinal cord infarcts usually give more obvious symptoms and signs than similar lesions in the brain. Large epidemiological stroke studies have generally not included spinal cord stroke and so the incidence of vascular syndromes in the spinal cord is unknown. Management and prevention strategies for spontaneous spinal cord infarcts stem from small case series and case reports. Patient outcomes from spinal cord infarction are better with prompt recognition, timely management and prevention of associated medical complications arising from paraplegia, tetraplegia, neurogenic bladder and bowel dysfunction. The process of rehabilitation following spinal cord infarction is an evolving area.

  • STROKE
  • REHABILITATION

Data availability statement

Data sharing not applicable as no datasets generated and/or analysed for this study.

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Data availability statement

Data sharing not applicable as no datasets generated and/or analysed for this study.

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Footnotes

  • Twitter @drgt2010, @ioanacociasu

  • Contributors ACP conceived the study. GT, VA, YS and IC drafted the initial manuscript. ACP, VA and CD revised the manuscript for content, including medical writing for content. All authors gave final approval for publication.

  • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed by Holger Allroggen, Coventry, UK.

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