Spinal cord and root injuries due to glass fragments and acupuncture needles.

The authors report four cases of extremely rare spinal cord injuries due to foreign bodies. These include one case of injury to the spinal cord caused by glass splinters from a shattered automobile windshield, two cases of spinal cord injury resulting from acupuncture needles, and one case of spinal nerve root injury by acupuncture treatment. The mechanism of occurrence of delayed myelopathy or progressive symptoms, which appeared after acupuncture treatments in two cases, are discussed.