Posterior spinal artery syndrome
Human spinal cord disorder
Posterior spinal artery syndrome (PSAS), also known as posterior spinal cord syndrome or posterior cord syndrome, is a type of incomplete spinal cord injury. PSAS is the least commonly occurring of the six clinical spinal cord injury syndromes, with an incidence rate of less than 1%.
PSAS originates from an infarct in the posterior spinal artery and is caused by lesions on the posterior portion of the spinal cord, specifically the posterior column, posterior horn, and posterolateral region of the lateral column. These lesions can be caused by trauma to the neck, occlusion of the spinal artery, tumors, disc compression, vitamin B12 deficiency, syphilis, or multiple sclerosis. Despite these numerous pathological pathways, the result is an interruption in transmission of sensory information and motor commands from the brain to the periphery.
Causes
Trauma to the spinal cord, such as neck hyperflexion injuries, are often the result of car accidents or sports-related injuries. In such injuries, posterior dislocations and extensions occur without the rupture of ligaments. This blunt trauma may be further complicated with subsequent disc compression. In addition to these complications, transient ischemic attacks could occur in the spinal cord during spinal artery occlusion.
Common pathological sources of PSAS include Friedreich's Ataxia, an autosomal-recessive inherited disease, and tumors such as astrocytoma, ependymoma, meningioma, neurofibroma, sarcoma, and schwannoma.
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This entry incorporates text from “Posterior spinal artery syndrome” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.