These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Civilian gunshot wounds to the spinal cord and cauda equina.
    Author: Benzel EC, Hadden TA, Coleman JE.
    Journal: Neurosurgery; 1987 Feb; 20(2):281-5. PubMed ID: 3561737.
    Abstract:
    We evaluated 42 patients with neurological deficits after civilian gunshot wounds to the spine. Thirty-five of these patients (the study population presented here) received their initial and follow-up care at Louisiana State University Medical Center in Shreveport over a 4-year period. Each patient had incurred a single gunshot wound to the spinal cord or cauda equina with an accompanying neurological deficit. The patient population was divided into three groups. Group 1 patients had incurred a complete motor and sensory loss below the injury (20 patients (57%]. Group 2 patients had incurred incomplete spinal cord injuries (9 patients (26%], whereas Group 3 patients had cauda equina injuries (6 patients (17%]. Myelography was performed for all Group 2 and 3 patients as well as Group 1 patients in whom the trajectory of the bullet did not explain a higher level of neurological injury (3 patients (15%]. A decompressive operation was performed in the patients whose myelography showed neural compression. Three patients in Group 1 (15%), 5 patients in Group 2 (56%), and 5 Group 3 patients (83%) underwent operation. All 3 Group 1 patients who underwent operation had some improvement of nerve root function postoperatively. All operated Group 2 and 3 patients had improvement of myelopathic or radicular function postoperatively. All began improving within several days of operation, implying a cause and effect relationship. None of the 17 nonoperated Group 1 patients improved neurologically, whereas 3 of the 4 nonoperated Group 2 patients improved. The single nonoperated Group 3 patient improved neurologically.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]