Journal de la colonne vertébrale

Acute Tetraplegia after Trivial Neck Injury Revealed a Cervical Intraspinal Neurenteric Cyst in a Child

Abstract

Koichi Iwatsuki, Toshiki Yoshimine, Yu-ichiro Ohnishi, Koshi Ninomiya, Toshika Ohkawa and Masami Nishio

Neurenteric cysts (NC) are rare anomalies of the central nervous system (CNS). They result from abnormal separation of the neural tube and the endodermis during the 3rd week of gestation, which leads to the persistence of endodermal elements in the spinal cord. They usually present insidiously with local spinal pain, radiculopathy, and myelopathy. We report the case of an 8-year-old boy with a high cervical neurenteric cyst who developed a progressive myelopathy after a minor neck trauma. He recovered completely after cyst removal.