Massive Chronic Spinal Epidural Hematoma in a Child

Abstract

IN 1869, Jackson 1 described the case of a 14-year-old girl with a spontaneous onset of weakness in the muscles of respiration and the upper extremities which at autopsy, was found to be due to cervical spinal cord compression from a large extradural clot. Since then, approximately 50 cases of spontaneous spinal epidural hematoma have been reported. Of these, only two have occurred in children less than 5 years old. 2,3 The finding of a massive chronic spinal epidural hematoma in a child 21 months of age forms the basis of this report. Report of a Case A 21-month-old white boy was in good health until December 1966 when, at the age of 16 months, he developed extreme irritability, staggering gait, and rigid flexion of his neck. Radiographs of the cervical spine showed no abnormalities. Treatment was conservative and four months later all signs and symptoms had disappeared. On May