Spine Disorders
SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS The signs and symptoms of early or mild myelopathy can be intermittent and somewhat vague. The signs and symptoms associated with myelopathy include:
CAUSES The most common
cause of myelopathy is spinal cord compression from a disc herniation or bone
spur (osteophyte). The next most common sources of myelopathy are
spinal cord compression due to extradural mass caused by carcinoma metastatic
to bone, and blunt or penetrating trauma. Many primary neoplastic, infectious,
inflammatory, neurodegenerative, vascular, nutritional, and idiopathic
disorders may also result in myelopathy, though these are very much less common
than discogenic disease, metastases, and trauma. A variety of cysts and benign
neoplasms may also compress the cord; these tend to arise intradurally. The
most common of these are meningiomas, nerve sheath tumors, epidermoid cysts,
and arachnoid cysts. RISK FACTORS The risk
factors for myelopathy are those circumstances or conditions which increase the
risk for spinal cord damage. Risk factors include:
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