Spinal Cord Injury without Radiological Abnormality in an 8 Months Old Female Child: A Case Report

INTRODUCTION Spinal cord injury in children frequently occurs without fracture or dislocation. SCIWORA is a syndrome occurring when the spinal cord sustains neural damage during a traumatic event without positive radiographic findings. The incidence of SCIWORA was found to be 8% to 32% in various studies with very few cases documented in children below the age of 1 year. We report such a case of spinal cord injury without radiological abnormality in an 8 months old female child. CASE REPORT An 8 months old female child was brought to the emergency room after a history of fall from the bed four days back. External spine examination revealed no abnormality. She had no upper or lower limb movements, both active and withdrawal movements with painful tactile stimuli, power was grade 0; are flexic; abdominal cremasteric and anal reflexes were absent, bladder was palpable and urine could be expressed on manual pressure. MRI of cervical spine with screening of whole spine: suggestive of non hemorrhagic cord edema at C4 level, with suspicious tear of anterior longitudinal ligament at that level. The child was immobilized in pediatric cervical collar and treatment was initiated with corticosteroids and the dose adjusted as per age of the patient. A paediatric physiotherapist started with physical therapy after four days of commencement of treatment. CONCLUSION In present times with wide spread use of MRI, the definition of SCIWORA is slowly turning towards spinal cord injury without neuroimaging abnormality [4]. Traumatic spinal cord infarction is a special type of SCIWORA which presents with normal radiology with delayed neurological deterioration [1]. Corticosteroid usage has been useful in cases of SCIWORA as proved by NASCISII Trial.