Sickle cell anemia and epidural extramedullary hematopoiesis.

Acute flaccid paralysis due to epidural extramedullary hematopoiesis developed in a 43-year-old man with sickle cell anemia. The patient showed no response to emergency decompressive laminectomy, radiotherapy, or exchange transfusion, and his neurologic deficit persisted unimproved. This is the first reported case of acute or irreversible spinal cord compression due to epidural extramedullary hematopoiesis in a patient with sickle cell anemia.