We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
To save content items to your account,
please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies.
If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account.
Find out more about saving content to .
To save content items to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected]
is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings
on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part
of your Kindle email address below.
Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations.
‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi.
‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Due to diagnostic, therapeutic, and rehabilitative advances, obstetric anesthesia providers are increasingly likely to encounter patients with disorders of the spinal cord. Sound knowledge of associated anatomic and physiologic abnormalities, coupled with an understanding of how the physiologic changes of pregnancy interact, are crucial to managing these increasingly complex patients. This chapter covers congenital and acquired spinal cord disorders, including acute and chronic spinal cord injury, spinal dysraphism, spinal cord tumors and vascular malformations, syringomyelia, the anterior spinal artery syndrome, infectious diseases and neurodegenerative conditions. Multidisciplinary management, with the team ideally being convened prior to conception, is crucial. For the most part, parturients with spinal cord disorders can attempt vaginal delivery. Operative delivery is usually reserved for obstetric reasons, for patients who would be unlikely to tolerate labor due to cardiopulmonary comorbidity, or for patients whose spinal cord pathology mandates delivery prior to, or synchronous with, definitive management. While spinal cord disorders do not necessarily preclude neuraxial anesthesia per se, providers are urged to obtain recent neuroimaging, and to document a preanesthetic neurological examination. The presence of surgical metalwork or implanted devices may pose challenges requiring an individualized approach.
We report a case of anterior spinal artery syndrome, an extremely rare complication, following head and neck surgery.
Method:
A case report and literature review concerning anterior spinal artery syndrome is presented.
Results:
A 64-year-old man developed an anterior spinal artery infarction following total laryngectomy and bilateral neck dissections for post-radiotherapy glottic carcinoma. Anterior spinal artery infarction is a rare syndrome. It typically presents with weakness, loss of pain and temperature sensation below the level of the injury, with relative sparing of position and vibratory sensation. Recovery is variable.
Conclusion:
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case report in the English language literature of anterior spinal artery syndrome following a head and neck procedure. This case report highlights a rare complication, and also the susceptibility of head and neck surgery patients to different complications. In head and neck cancer patients suffering anterior spinal artery syndrome following primary surgical treatment, we recommend that the management of this complication should be as aggressive as that of the primary cancer.
Recommend this
Email your librarian or administrator to recommend adding this to your organisation's collection.