[A 66-year-old man with backache and progressive difficulty of gait].

We report a 66-year-old man with progressive spinal paraplegia. He was well until June of 1991 when he had an onset of backache and right chest pain. On August 25, he lost sensation to void and he became unable to urinate. On the same day, he noted weakness in his legs which became progressively worse, and he was admitted to our hospital. Past medical history included diabetes mellitus which was found 3 years previously. He had upper gastrointestinal series 2 months before, which revealed a normal study. On admission, he was alert and general physical examination was unremarkable. Neurological examination revealed a mentally sound man with normal higher cerebral functions. Cranial nerves were also intact. He was unable to walk. No muscle atrophy was noted, but he had moderate to marked (2/5) weakness in both legs. No ataxia was noted in the upper extremities. Jaw jerk was normal, however, deep reflexes in the upper extremities were decreased, and absent in the lower extremities Babinski sign was present bilaterally. All sensory modalities were diminished below the Th 6 dermatome. No meningeal sign was present. Emergency myelography was performed on the day of admission, which revealed complete block from the Th4 to Th8 segments. CSF taken at that time was xanthochromic, positive Queckenstedt test containing 1,133 mg/dl of protein, 54 mg/dl of sugar and 1/3 microliters of lymphocyte. On August 31, laminectomy was performed from Th5 to Th7. The spinal bones in this area was very fragile and hemorrhagic. A soft yellowish vascular-rich tissue was surrounding the spinal cord in the epidural space. Despite surgery his weakness in legs worsened, and he became paraplegic by September 10th. He became somnolent with disorientation to time. In the subsequent course, he developed metabolic acidosis on September 26. On September 28, he became anuric and hypotensive. He expired later on that day.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)