[The clinical picture and pathogenesis of the late sequelae of birth injury to the thoracic spinal cord].

A study was made of the spinal cord of 28 neonates and of children aged up to 6 years with the anamnesis load, who died of different diseases. According to the morphological findings, massive hemorrhages were discovered in the thoracic part of the spinal cord in those who died at an age under 6 months. In the later periods one could find different stages of the organization of hemorrhages in the form of commissural process primarily around roots and vessels and dyscirculatory vascular disorders in the spinal cord. The lesions discovered were compared with the clinical manifestations in 40 patients of varying age, who suffered natal injury to the thoracic part of the spinal cord. They showed up by atrophic and spastic paraparesis of the lower limbs, syringomyelitic syndrome at the level of the thoracic part, scoliosis of the thoracic part of the spine. The latter one was induced by asymmetric atrophy of the muscles of the interscapular area.