Abstract
Atraumatic spinal emergencies often present a diagnostic and management dilemma for
health care practitioners. Spinal epidural abscess, cauda equina syndrome, and spinal
epidural hematoma are conditions that can insidiously present to outpatient medical
offices, urgent care centers, and emergency departments. Unless a high level of clinical
suspicion is maintained, these clinical entities may be initially misdiagnosed and
mismanaged. Permanent neurologic sequela and even death can result if delays in appropriate
treatment occur. A focused, critical review of 34 peer-reviewed articles was performed
to identify current data about accurate diagnosis of spinal emergencies. This review
highlights the key features of these 3 pathological entities with an emphasis on appropriate
diagnostic strategy to intervene efficiently and minimize morbidity.
Keywords
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: October 03, 2018
Footnotes
Funding: No funding was provided for this project.
Conflict of Interest: JB and SP have no conflicts of interest to report. MP: Paid consultant, Globus Medical, Stryker, Spineart; Medical advisory board, Stimlabs. AD: paid consultant, Depuy, a Johnson & Johnson Company, Globus Medical, Orthofix, Inc., SpineArt, Stryker; research support, Orthofix, Inc., publishing royalties, Springer.
Authorship: All authors had access to data and were essential in the writing of this manuscript.
Identification
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