Regular Article
Idiopathic spinal cord herniation

https://doi.org/10.1054/jocn.2000.0819Get rights and content

Abstract

Spinal cord herniation is a rare condition that has become increasingly recognised in the last few years. The authors report a case of idiopathic spinal cord herniation in a 33 year old woman who presented with progressive Brown-Sequard syndrome. The di agnosis was made on MR imaging. After repairing the herniation the patient made a gradual improvement. Potential causes are discussed, including the possible role of dural tethering. In conclusion, idiopathic spinal cord herniation is a potentially treat able condition that should be more readily diagnosed with increased awareness and newer imaging techniques such as high resolution MRI.

References (17)

  • P Brugieres et al.

    Idiopathic spinal cord herniation: value of MR phase-contrast imaging

    Am J Neuroradiol

    (1999)
  • T Ohe et al.

    A case of idiopathic herniation of the spinal cord associated with duplicated dura mater and with an arachnoid cyst (in Japanese)

    Nippon Seikeigeka Gakkai Zasshi

    (1990)
  • P Sioutos et al.

    Spontaneous thoracic spinal cord herniation: a case report

    Spine

    (1996)
  • Y Miura et al.

    Idiopathic spinal cord herniation

    Neuroradiology

    (1996)
  • S Miyake et al.

    Idiopathic spinal cord herniation

    J Neurosurg

    (1998)
  • LF Borges et al.

    Idiopathic spinal cord herniation: a treatable cause of the Brown-Sequard syndrome

    Neurosurgery

    (1995)
  • VM Tronnier et al.

    Hernia of the spinal cord: a case report and review of the literature

    Neurosurgery

    (1991)
  • H Urbach et al.

    Herniation of the spinal cord 38 years after childhood trauma

    Neuroradiology

    (1996)
There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (28)

  • Idiopathic ventral thoracic spinal cord herniation – A case report and literature review

    2021, Interdisciplinary Neurosurgery: Advanced Techniques and Case Management
    Citation Excerpt :

    The authors of this paper term this “thoracic anterior spinal cord adhesion syndrome” and consider this the precursor to the development of a dural defect and spinal cord herniation [13]. Other theories that have attempted to explain the pathophysiology include a congenital dural deficiency, post-traumatic dural injury, pressure erosion of the dura from osteophytes and/or herniated thoracic discs, and ventral dural duplication [4,9,14]. Reasons proposed in another paper, to explain the high incidence of the disease in the upper thoracic spine, are thoracic kyphosis, the natural position of the spinal cord which is anterior in the upper thoracic spine, the physiological anterior movement of the thoracic spinal cord secondary to cardiac pulsations, and the influence of flexion and extension [11].

  • Idiopathic thoracic spinal cord herniation

    2018, Journal of Clinical Neuroscience
    Citation Excerpt :

    Thin-cut sequences can also be done in areas of interest, to rule out the presence of lesions dorsal to the cord. It is an excellent modality in the diagnosis of SCH, revealing absence of CSF ventral to dura and an expanded dorsal subarachnoid space [3,27,58,69,73,78]. Not infrequently, cord atrophy and/or signal change may be appreciated and the cord herniation may protrude quite significantly [50].

  • An unusual case of Brown-Sequard syndrome

    2014, Journal of Clinical Neuroscience
  • Thoracic cord herniation through a dural defect: description of a case and review of the literature

    2009, Surgical Neurology
    Citation Excerpt :

    We chose to repair our patient's dural defect with a pericardial dural sling that was slipped anterior to the cord and stitched at the edges with 5-0 prolene sutures with minimal cord manipulation. Other mechanisms of repair include reduction of the herniated cord and enlargement of the defect (to prevent retethering) [1,27,44,45], resection of the inner duplicated layer of dura in patients with duplication [23,30], wrapping the spinal cord with a graft postreduction [3], and transthoracic suture repair of the dura [9]. Postoperatively, our patient's strength, gait, and sensation returned to normal immediately.

View all citing articles on Scopus
f1

Correspondence to: Dr Andrew Morokoff, Department of Neurosurgery, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Parkville 3050, Victoria, Australia. Tel.: 61 3 9342 7000; Fax: 61 3 9347 8332.

View full text