Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina, U.S.A.
Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina, U.S.A; Division of Spine, Department of Neurosurgery, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, U.S.A..
World Neurosurg. 2020 Jul;139:274-280. doi: 10.1016/j.wneu.2020.04.148. Epub 2020 Apr 25.
Split cord malformation (SCM) is a developmental disorder that is usually symptomatic and diagnosed in childhood. The majority of these lesions are in the thoracic and lumbar spine, with only 1%-3% of cases found in the cervical spine. This is a case report of a 55-year-old female patient with an unremarkable medical history who presented with neck pain. Upon workup, she was found to have extensive developmental anomalies throughout her cervical and thoracic spine, including an incidentally found type 2 SCM and multiple autofused vertebrae. There are only 6 similar studies published in the literature. There was extensive facet degeneration in her cervical spine, which was suspected to be the etiology of her neck pain. This case illustrates the rare finding of asymptomatic adult cervical SCM and the likely significance of her autofused vertebrae causing accelerated symptomatic facet spondylosis.
脊髓分裂畸形(SCM)是一种发育性疾病,通常在儿童时期出现症状并被诊断。这些病变大多数位于胸腰椎,只有 1%-3%的病例发生在颈椎。这是一例 55 岁女性患者的病例报告,她无明显病史,表现为颈部疼痛。在进行检查时,发现她的颈胸段脊柱有广泛的发育异常,包括偶然发现的 2 型 SCM 和多个融合的椎体。文献中仅发表了 6 项类似的研究。她的颈椎有广泛的小关节退化,这被怀疑是她颈部疼痛的病因。本病例说明了无症状成人颈椎 SCM 的罕见发现,以及她的融合椎体可能导致加速症状性小关节病的重要意义。