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What is a myelopathy?
Myelopathy is any pathologic process that affects primarily the spinal cord and causes neurologic dysfunction.
Most common causes of myelopathies
The most common causes of myelopathies are as follows:
- 1. Congenital and developmental defects:
- • Syringomyelia
- • Neural tube formation defects
- 2. Trauma
- 3. Compromise of the spinal cord:
- • Cervical spondylosis
- • Inflammatory arthritis
- • Acute disc herniation
- 4. Neoplasms:
- • Primary spinal and paraspinal
- 5. Physical agents:
- • Decompression sickness
- • Electrical injury
- • Radiation
- 6. Toxins:
- • Nitrous oxide
- • Triorthocresyl phosphate
- 7. Metabolic and nutritional disorders:
- • Vitamin B12 deficiency
- • Copper deficiency
- • Chronic liver disease
- • Thiamine deficiency (beri-beri)
- 8. Paraneoplastic myelitis
- 9. Arachnoiditis
- 10. Systemic autoimmune disorders:
- • Lupus
- • Sjӧgren’s syndrome
- • Systemic vasculitis
- 11. Demyelinating disease:
- • Multiple sclerosis
- • Neuromyelitis optica
- 12. Epidural infections
- 13. Primary infections:
- • Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV vacuolar myelopathy)
- • Syphilis (tabes dorsalis)
- • Human T-lymphotropic virus (HTLV)-1,2 (tropical spastic paraparesis)
- • Varicella zoster virus myelopathy
- • Lyme radiculomyelitis
- • Tuberculosis
- • Spinal epidural abscess
- 14. Vascular causes:
- • Epidural hematoma
- • Atherosclerotic, abdominal aneurysm
- • Spinal dural arteriovenous fistula and other vascular malformations
- • Spinal artery infarction
