[A 90-year-old woman with acute hemiparesis].
A right-handed woman of 90, taking aspirin 160 mg daily, suffered acute neck pain radiating to the shoulders, with right side hemiparesis and numbness occurring minutes thereafter. On admission 2.5 hrs later, examination showed paresis and hyporeflexia of the right limbs accompanied by neck stiffness and vertebral tenderness in level C7. Acute stroke was the initial working diagnosis. Cerebral CT was normal. Symptoms progressed with left arm numbness and left ancle clonus, and eight hours after symptom onset there was bilateral plantar inversion, reduced skin prick sensibility below C4, bladder paresis and anal sphincter hypotonia. CT myelography revealed an intraspinal mass extending from C2 to C6. 14 hours after symptom onset, a spinal epidural haematoma was removed by spinal laminectomy. Recovery and functional outcome was good. Symptoms, work-up and treatment are discussed with reference to previous publications.
Sanaker
Petter Schandl
PS
Nevrologisk avdeling, Haukeland Universitetssjukehus, 5021 Bergen. petter.schandl.sanaker@helse-bergen.no
Aarhus
Mads
M
Lund-Johansen
Morten
M
Smievoll
Alf Inge
AI
Tzoulis
Charalampos
C
Skeie
Geir Olve
GO
D000208:Acute Disease; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D046748:Hematoma, Epidural, Spinal / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D009192:Myelography; D010291:Paresis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D020127:Recovery of Function