Myelomalacia

Clinic

• Myelomalacia is a pathological term referring to the softening of the spinal cord.
• Possible causes of myelomalacia include cervical myelopathy, hemorrhagic infarction, or acute injury, such as that caused by intervertebral disc extrusion.

Sign / Symptoms

• Flaccid paraplegia (impairment of motor function in lower extremities),
• Total areflexia (below normal or absence of reflexes) of the pelvic limbs and anus
• Loss of deep pain perception caudal (toward the coccyx, or tail) to the site of spinal cord injury
• Muscular atrophy (wasting away of muscle tissue)
• Depressed mental state
• Respiratory difficulty due to intercostal (muscles that run between the ribs) and diaphragmatic paralysis.
• Gradual cranial migration of the neurological deficits (problems relating to the nervous system), is known as ascending syndrome and is said to be a typical feature of diffuse myelomalacia. Although clinical signs of myelomalacia are observed within the onset (start) of paraplegia, sometimes they may become evident only in the post-operative period, or even days after the onset of paraplegia. Death from myelomalacia may occur as a result of respiratory paralysis when the ascending lesion (abnormal damaged tissue) reaches the motor nuclei of the phrenic nerves (nerves between the C3-C5 region of the spine) in the cervical (neck) region.