Anatomy for Emergency Medicine 006.2: Spinal Cord Injury

14 Feb

Here’s number 2. Let me know what you think

[Direct Download]

UPDATE:
The very smart and astute Chris Nickson points out that central cord syndrome normally presents with motor weakness in the distally (in the hands) rather than proximally in the case in the video.

My bad…

He is of course right and has a nice little mnemonic for remembering it MUD: Motor/Upper/Distal

And remember that the symptoms and signs are relative not absolute:

motor>sensory
upper>lower
distal> proximal

Based on the pure anatomy – with the corticospinal tracts arranged somatotopically with the highest spinal segments most medial – one would expect proximal weakness (C5,6 etc..) more than distal (C7-8, T1 etc…). But since when does the textbook play ball with reality! Maybe it’s just representative of the level of lesion in cervical cord (ie a lower lesion when the upper segments have already exited the cord) but it has me beat. Let me know if you have a better answer

Either way the more important thing is that central cord syndrome more usually presents with distal not proximal upper limb weakness.

Kudos to Chris for spotting it. I have since added a dodgy overdub to correct it.

 

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6 Replies to “Anatomy for Emergency Medicine 006.2: Spinal Cord Injury

  1. Pingback: Neurology Resources for Medical Students (2/2) - Manu et Corde

  2. I just watched all three videos on incomplete spinal cord injuries, and let me just say I have one word for them “AWESOME”!!!! I’m teaching a PHTLS class in the US and was using the power of the Google to find a better way to explain to my paramedics what is happening in layman’s terms, and it led me here. I will be using these for Paramedic and EMT classes also. This is great! Thank you so much for sharing such a great tool for education. I appreciate it. I wish you were out here to be a guest speaker. 🙂

  3. Pingback: Spinal Cord Anatomy and Syndromes • LITFL • CCC Trauma

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