[Unilateral, paramedian spinal contusion after athletic injury with complete recovery]

The acute injury of the spinal column and the spinal cord asks for immediate diagnostic techniques and adequate therapeutical intensive care in order to secure the possibility of a maximum of neurologic recovery. An impact trauma of the spinal cord in sports accidents can cause an incomplete paraplegia. In some cases, morphologic lesions of the myelon cannot be detected. We present an exceptional and striking case of a 15-year old young woman who suffered from a contusio spinalis after high jump with the clinical signs of an incomplete, sensomotoric paraplegia which showed a strictly unilateral and paramedian border at the right side of her body for about two weeks. Additionally, the diagnostic possibilities of physical examination, magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography and neurophysiologic diagnostic techniques in detecting spinal cord injuries are demonstrated.