Cauda equina syndrome and severe lumbar-sacral radiculopathy in general practice: Finding the needle in the haystack

Cauda equina syndrome is a symptom complex of significant clinical and medico-legal concern to both primary care physicians and neurosurgeons. The clinical spectrum of presentation is a cause for significant confusion in the primary care and emergency department setting, which, coupled with the high frequency of litigation relating to these cases, results in physician discomfort in the assessment, investigation and triage of patients with lumbar spinal pathology.

This paper aims to discuss the clinical spectrum of 'cauda equina syndrome' and relate the signs and symptoms to their underlying anatomical basis, to provide a framework from which primary care physicians and neurosurgeons can triage the urgency of investigation and/or intervention.

We recommend that 'cauda equina syndrome' should be better understood as a spectrum of severe radiculopathy relating to acute compression of lumbar and/or sacral nerve roots, which comprises multiple separate indications for investigation and intervention with variable urgency.