Nontraumatic Spine Emergencies: A Primer for the On-Call Radiologist

Abstract

Myelopathy is defined as rapidly developing muscle weakness, sensory deficit, and loss of bowel and bladder sphincter control. The differential for atraumatic myelopathy includes both extrinsic and intrinsic causes, with the former including disc herniations with compressive myelopathy, osteomyelitis with epidural abscess, and leptomeningeal spread of disease whereas the latter includes acute inflammatory processes like Guillain-Barre syndrome or demyelinating disease, and spinal cord tumors.