The risk of paraplegia through medical treatment

In the Orthopedic University Hospital of Heidelberg (section Orthopedics II, treatment and rehabilitation of paraplegics), 21 patients with iatrogenic paraplegia were treated between 1968 and 1991. Paraplegia occurred in nine cases after procedures close to the spinal cord. In 12 cases paraplegia complicated medical treatment. Procedures close to the spinal cord, such as laminectomy, vertebrotomy, spondylodesis, and peridural anaesthesia, involve the risk of mechanical damage to the spinal cord, the level of paraplegia depends on the area of treatment. Any previous damage to the spinal cord increases the risk of paraplegic complications. The main risks in procedures distant from the spinal cord, such as vascular surgery, angiography, radiotherapy, bronchial artery embolisation, and umbilical artery injection, are disturbances of the blood supply or toxic mechanisms. The ischaemic genesis of spinal cord damage is obvious in the case of vessel ligatures or cross-clamping of the aorta with resulting hypotonic discirculation. In radiomyelopathy as well, the damage to the spinal vessels outweighs the direct neuronal damage. Corresponding to the vascular cause, lesions are more likely to occur at the level of borderlines of blood supply in the middle thoracic cord or in the area of a non-anastomosed great radicular artery in the lumbar spinal cord. Knowledge of the consequences and side effects of medical treatment is imperative. Knowing about the risk of a paraplegic lesion, we need a strict indication for diagnostic and therapeutic interventions. Due to progress in science some of the reasons of iatrogenic paraplegia have become manageable. Especially in radiotherapy, vascular surgery and angiography the risk of neurological complications has been lowered.