Spinal Cord Injury Following Abdominal Aortic Surgery: A Case Report

The incidence of spinal cord injury following abdominal aortic surgery is 0.25%.8 Szilagyi's world literature search yielded 36 case reports, and he added 8 case reports to that number. In Szilagy's series, all of the postoperative cases of spinal cord injury were observed after abdominal aortic aneurysm surgery. The incidence in cases of ruptured aneurysms was ten times greater (5 of 247 or 2%) than that noted in cases of unruptured aneurysms (3 of 1,477 or 0.2%) . No spinal cord injury occurred in the patients operated on for aorto-iliac occlusive disease, and the rarity of occurrence of this complication in aorto-iliac occlusive disease is reflected in the number of cases reported in the literature. 2,3,5,6,9The lower extremity neurologic deficit may occur with or without bowel and bladder paralysis, and may be temporary or permanent. The object of this paper is to present a case report of spinal cord injury following surgery for aorto-iliac occlusive disease, and a discussion of the pathophysiology of...