Clauda or Cauda?

Cauda Equina syndrome

A 26-year-old male with a history of a work-related back injury presented to the emergency department complaining of several weeks of low back pain radiating down his left leg. For the past day, he noticed numbness to his perineal area and feet bilaterally, and difficulty urinating. He denied recent trauma, leg weakness, or fevers. Physical examination revealed perineal anesthesia and decreased...

Cauda Equina Disorders

ANATOMY The spinal cord tapers to its end, the conus medullaris, usually at the lower edge of the first lumbar vertebra. The continuation of the spinal cord is a strand of connective tissue, the filum terminale. The ventral and dorsal lumbar and sacral nerve roots that arise from the conus medullaris form a bundle, the cauda equina (Figure 1). These lumbar and sacral spinal nerve roots separate...

Imaging the cauda equina

Mobile cauda equina schwannomas

Although very rare, cases of cauda equina tumours migrating several levels have been known to occur. We report two cases of cauda equina schwannomas which migrated from its primary site, one caudally and the other one rostrally as confirmed by magnetic resonance imaging perioperatively. The f irst patient was a 27-year-old man and the second a 41year-old man; both presented with back pain. This...

Cauda equina syndrome.

Cauda equina syndrome is a relatively uncommon condition typically associated with a large, space-occupying lesion within the canal of the lumbosacral spine. The syndrome is characterized by varying patterns of low back pain, sciatica, lower extremity sensorimotor loss, and bowel and bladder dysfunction. The pathophysiology remains unclear but may be related to damage to the nerve roots composi...