Long term post-traumatic retrograde corticospinal degeneration in man.

The spinal cord and brain of a man who died 18 years after a crush injury of lumbar segments contained some unusual lesions. There was a reduced number of myelinated axons in the corticospinal tracts as high as the fifth cervical segment. Such retrograde degeneration has been described in human pyramidal tracts only a few times. The results of reported studies of experimental retrograde degeneration have been inconsistent. The course of the fasciculus gracilis, as delineated by gliosis, was atypical, and an unusual glial nodule, possibly neoplastic, was present in the dorsal columns at C8.