Woman was perfectly normal 3 wks ago walking 3 miles per day and using both arms and hands without difficulty.
Three wks ago she slept on a pillow much thicker than usual, and then developed progressive neck and arm pain, then numbness, then clumsiness in both arms and legs. The clumsiness was so bad she could not sign her name or open her own buttons. Her walking became so bad that she came to my clinic yesterday in wheelchair only able to take a few clumsy steps w assistance.
MRI cervical spine done urgently yesterday showed large disc herniation crushing spinal cord at C56, w a "flash lesion" in the spinal cord t that level, which suggests spinal cord bruising or injury.
I just finished fixing this surgically w C56 anterior cervical discectomy and fusion w plate ( ACDF).
Surgical time: 1 hour 30 min.
Complications: none.
Spinal cord monitoring showed improvement after removal of the spinal cord compression.
Hopefully by tomorrow she will start to rergain some of her arm and leg function, but it may take her several months to fully recover from this severe myelopathy (spinal cord malfunction, often due to compression).
Dr . Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com