Cervical Spinal Cord Injury – Syrinx

Transcript

In some patients who have suffered a traumatic cervical spinal cord injury, they can, later on after they’ve achieved their new level of function, begin to lose function once again. In this case, it’s important for the patient to get to a surgeon as quickly as possible to undergo a repeat MRI of their spinal cord and make sure that they don’t have a syrinx. A syrinx is a fluid collection in the substance of the spinal cord that can develop and increase over time after a traumatic spinal cord injury. If this is recognized early enough, the syrinx can be shunted, a surgical procedure to let that fluid out, and the original level of functioning can be recovered. If these are ignored, a patient can go on to lose a number of muscle groups, lose additional sensation and be compromised by ignoring and expanding syrinx.