Rinsho Shinkeigaku (Clinical Neurology)

Case Report

A case of surfer's myelopathy with serial imaging examination from early stage after onset

Shota Igasaki, M.D.1), Yoji Suzuki, M.D.1), Naoki Sakai, M.D.1), Akiyuki Takenouchi, M.D.1), Kei Shinohara, M.D.1) and Tadahisa Kanemoto, M.D.1)

1) Department of Neurology, Yaizu City Hospital

Surfer's myelopathy is non-traumatic spinal cord injury which develops in beginner surfers. The patient was a 17-year-old female who developed severe paraplegia with bilateral sensory dysfunction below the groin and bladder/rectal dysfunctions after her first surfing lesson. A spinal-cord MRI performed six hours after onset revealed an intramedullary hyperintensity area from T8 to the conus medullaris on the T2 weighted images. Expansion of this hyperintensity area was observed on Day 3 and showed a reduction on Day 8. After providing intravenous methylpredonisolone, intravenous glycerol and intravenous edaravone, motor function and bladder/rectal functions began to improve after approximately three weeks. In this study, the expansion of the lesion in the early stages of the disease course was observed by sequential spinal MRI. Furthermore, a time lag between improvement according to imaging and improvement in symptoms was also observed.
Full Text of this Article in Japanese PDF (3534K)

(CLINICA NEUROL, 60: 752|757, 2020)
key words: surfer's myelopathy, spinal cord injury, MRI, sequential change

(Received: 13-Feb-20)