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Tandem spinal cord injuries without radiographic abnormalities in a young child
1Department of Neurosurgery, Children's Hospital of Buffalo, University of Buffalo School of Medicine, Buffalo, NY 14222, USA.
Abstract:
Anatomic features unique to the pediatric spine render this population susceptible to spinal cord injuries without radiographic abnormalities (SCIWORA). To date, published descriptions of SCIWORA have been limited to a single region of the spinal column. We describe a case of a 3-year-old boy in whom, after a motor vehicle accident, tandem SCIWORA lesions involving the lower cervical spinal cord and thoracolumbar junction resulted in severe quadraparesis. The child was initially treated with 24 h of methylprednisolone followed by 3 months of external orthoses of both the cervical and thoracic spine. We include in this article a brief review of the literature and treatment guidelines for SCIWORA and postulate the mechanism of these tandem spinal cord injuries.