title: Central cord syndrome in a 7-year-old boy secondary to standing high jump.
abstract: Acute traumatic central cord syndrome is commonly associated with major trauma such as falling and motor vehicle crash, but minor or nontraumatic causes are very rare in children. As a consequence, most physicians frequently overlook children presenting with complaints of arm weakness when history of any definite major trauma does not exist, especially in the emergency department. We present the case of a 7-year-old boy who was experiencing weakness in both arms after a standing high jump with tilting his head back in school. He had no history of any definite trauma and no evidence of bone abnormalities on plain radiography and computed tomography of the cervical spine. Magnetic resonance imaging of the cervical spine revealed observable swelling with increased signal intensity at C1 to 4 levels. This case showed a spinal cord injury caused by standing high jump with neck extension alone. Therefore, the physicians have to consider the possibility of spinal cord injury even without any history of major trauma.
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Emergency Medicine, Gangneung Asan Hospital, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Gangneung, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Sang Ku
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.forename: Hyung Jin
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Hui Dong
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: Se Hyun
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Oh
mesh_terms: D001265:Athletic Injuries / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000209:etiology; D020210:Central Cord Syndrome / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000209:etiology; D002648:Child; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011859:Radiography; D014142:Track and Field / Q000293:injuries*