Traumatic extradural hematoma of the cervical spine

Abstract

An example of a traumatic extradural hematoma of the cervical spine that occurred in a 32-year-old man who suffered from chronic ankylosing spondylitis is reported. Progressive sensory and motor deficit ensued some 3 hours after the patient fell from a standing position. The patient landed on his back, striking his head on the floor. After being helped up, he was able to walk unassisted to a nearby chair, where he sat down until his left lower extremity--and shortly afterwards, the right one--became numb and weak. On admission, the patient was found to have tetraparesis that was more pronounced in the lower extremities and associated with incomplete sensation to pinprick at level T7-T10. He also had painless distention of the urinary bladder. After a few hours, the weakness in his limbs increased and his sensory level rose to C5 bilaterally. A horizontal diastatic fracture across the vertebral body of C7 was discovered on plain x-ray films of the spine, and an extradural hematoma extending dorsally from C5 to T1 was revealed by emergency magnetic resonance imaging. After an emergency decompressive cervical laminectomy and removal of the clot, the patient rapidly regained complete neurological function, except with regard to both the urinary bladder and the rectum, which remained abnormal for almost 7 weeks after the operation.