Acute aortic thrombosis presenting as painless paraplegia

Two patients with acute aortic thrombosis presented with painless paraplegia secondary to spinal cord infarction. In one case, the initial symptom was unilateral leg weakness, leading to the misdiagnosis of stroke. In the other case, a patient with a large, painful vulvar abscess, experienced spontaneous relief of pain. In the complete absence of pain, both patients slept undisturbed and awoke with complete paraplegia, incontinence, and cadaveric extremities. Aortic reconstruction was advised to obviate thigh or hindquarter amputation, not to restore limb function. One patient died on the second postoperative day; the second remains well but paraplegic two years later.