Spinal Cord Stroke: An Uncommon Diagnosis behind Common Symptoms

Abstract

Spinal cord infarction is one such disease which is quite uncommon and often goes undetected because of variation in its onset, severity, duration and presentation. Spinal cord is supplied by anterior and posterior spinal arteries.Around three quarters of blood supply to spinal cord is derived from anterior spinal artery. Mostly Spinal Cord Syndrome is due to vascular compromise pathologically or due to any iatrogenic insult. Spinal cord stroke, either ischemic or hemorrhagic presents abruptly over few minutes to several hours with severe back pain along with bilateral weakness or paralysis depending upon the site and severity of lesion. Aspirin is standard treatment along with low-dose heparin administered subcutaneously, and physiotherapy to improve motor function. Various factors like patient health, age and condition of the disease might influence clinical evolution and functional outcome. Weakness or paralysis may improve as time passes especially in those where complete infarction did not occur.