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syringomyelia
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syringomyelia

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Syringomyelia is a generic term referring to a disorder in which a cyst or cavity forms within the spinal cord. Often, syringomyelia is used as a generic term before an etiology is determined. This cyst, called a syrinx, can expand and elongate over time, destroying the spinal cord. The damage may result in loss of feeling, paralysis, weakness, and stiffness in the back, shoulders, and extremities.

Key facts

Medical condition.name
Syringomyelia
Medical condition.image
File:Syringomyelia (with arrow).png
Medical condition.caption
Syrinx within the spinal cord
Medical condition.field
Neurology
Medical condition.symptoms
loss of sensitivity to pain and temperature
Medical condition.complications
Chronic pain, muscle weakness, paralysis
Medical condition.diagnosis
MRI
Medical condition.treatment
Surgery, monitoring, pain management

via Wikipedia infobox

Research

5,908 papers

via PubMed

Wikidata facts

Instance of
symptom or sign
Subclass of
disease
Image
Syringomyelia.jpg
Show 9 more facts
Commons category
Syringomyelia
discoverer or inventor
Friedrich Schultze
NCI Thesaurus ID
C85179
health specialty
neurology
ICPC 2 ID
N99
external data available at URL
www.nanbyou.or.jp/entry/133
on focus list of Wikimedia project
WikiProject Medicine
Sources (7)

via Wikidata · CC0

~15 min read

Encyclopedic overview

13 sections
Contents
  • Signs and symptoms
  • Cause
  • Congenital
  • Acquired
  • Pathogenesis
  • Diagnosis
  • Treatment
  • Surgery
  • Non-surgical interventions
  • Research
  • See also
  • References
  • External links

Syringomyelia is a generic term referring to a disorder in which a cyst or cavity forms within the spinal cord. Often, syringomyelia is used as a generic term before an etiology is determined. This cyst, called a syrinx, can expand and elongate over time, destroying the spinal cord. The damage may result in loss of feeling, paralysis, weakness, and stiffness in the back, shoulders, and extremities.

Syringomyelia may also cause a loss of the ability to feel extremes of hot or cold, especially in the hands. It may also lead to a cape-like bilateral loss of pain and temperature sensation along the upper chest and arms. The combination of symptoms varies from one patient to another depending on the location of the syrinx within the spinal cord, as well as its extent.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “syringomyelia” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (4)