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Pitfalls of Incomplete Myelography with Thoracic Spinal Lesions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2015

Hart C.M. Cohen
Affiliation:
Division of Neurosurgery, St. Michael’s Hospital and the University of Toronto
William S. Tucker*
Affiliation:
Division of Neurosurgery, St. Michael’s Hospital and the University of Toronto
*
38 Shuter Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5B IA6
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Abstract:

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This paper describes four patients with thoracic spinal lesions in whom the initial clinical presentation was highlighted by complaints in the lower back and lower extremities, in the absence of thoracic spinal or radicular symptoms. Initial myelography, confined to the lumbar region, failed to reveal a cause for the patients’ symptoms. Subsequently, diagnostic consideration of a thoracic spinal lesion prompted repeat myelography of the thoracic region which demonstrated a relevant lesion in each case. It is important to visualize the thoracic cord when myelography is performed for the investigation of pain or neurological symptoms in the lower back or lower extremities.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Neurological Sciences Federation 1985

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