Postoperative iatrogenic spinal cord herniation: three case reports with a literature review.

We present three cases of postoperative iatrogenic spinal cord herniation and present a literature review. Our data base included 32253 patients who underwent spinal surgery, and among these patients, 3 showed postoperative spinal cord herniation. Postoperative spinal cord herniation was observed in a 55-year-old man and a 60-year-old man. Both these patients underwent cervical laminoplasty for degenerative cervical myelopathy; however, intraoperative dural tear was reported. They presented with severe quadriplegia and sensory disorders at 8 years and 2 months after initial surgery. The third case of postoperative spinal cord herniation was of a 47-year-old woman who underwent Th11/12 schwannoma resection. Her neurological symptoms did not improve after tumor resection, and MRI at 2 months after surgery revealed spinal cord herniation. All the 3 patients underwent spinal cord reduction surgery; one patient showed sufficient neurological improvement while 2 patients with cervical spinal cord herniation showed limited neurological improvement due to preoperative severe quadriplegia. Although postoperative iatrogenic spinal cord herniation is a relatively rare pathology, careful observation with postoperative MRI is required in cases of patients with new neurological symptoms after dural injury and durotomy. PMID: 32581417 [PubMed - in process]
Source: Nagoya Journal of Medical Science - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Tags: Nagoya J Med Sci Source Type: research