title: Cervical Myelopathy Caused by Injections into the Neck.
abstract: Three cases of longitudinally extensive cervical myelopathies temporally associated with neck injections are presented. The spinal cord injury was similar radiographically, despite a number of different needle approaches and substances injected. In recent years, there have been reports of an acute cervical myelopathy immediately following an injection procedure in the neck. Various explanations have been offered for this unfortunate complication, including (1) direct injection into the cord leading to traumatic injury, (2) injection of particulate matter into the arterial supply of the cord causing microvascular embolism and spinal cord infarction, and (3) intraneural injection of the chemical with centripetal spread of the injectant from the nerve trunk to the substance of the cord. The merits of each of these 3 mechanisms in explaining these cases are discussed. Albeit rare, acute cervical myelopathy should be considered a potential complication from any deep injection of chemicals into the neck.
authors.affiliation: UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Jeffrey W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Ralph
authors.affiliation: UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Rabia
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Malik
authors.affiliation: UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Robert B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Layzer
keywords: EMG/nerve conduction velocity; brachial plexus neuropathies; neuromuscular diseases; spinal cord diseases; spinal cord injuries; techniques