The importance of the clinical examination of the lower sacral segments: Four case reports

In our practice, in a spinal cord injury unit, clinical examinations include anal sensation and voluntary anal contraction, which are essential for neurological classification of spinal cord injury according to international standards (ISNCSCI), but we also always examine the integrity of the sacral segments, testing anal tone and anal and bulbocavernosus reflexes (S2-S4 segments) and the dartos reflex to evaluate the thoracolumbar sympathetic pathway.

In this paper, we describe four case reports of bladder dysfunction in which a clinical examination of the lower sacral segments was decisive to identify the neurological etiology.

These cases, in patients with unexplained bladder dysfunction, highlight the importance of clinical testing the sacral segments, as part of the neurological examination, otherwise sacral lesions may remain undetected.