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Epidural haemorrhage of the cervical spinal cord: a post‐mortem artefact?
Author(s) -
Rutty G. N.,
Squier W. M. V.,
Padfield C. J. H.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
neuropathology and applied neurobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.538
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1365-2990
pISSN - 0305-1846
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2990.2004.00633.x
Subject(s) - medicine , presentation (obstetrics) , spinal cord , head and neck , surgery , neck pain , cord , pathology , alternative medicine , psychiatry
Spinal epidural haemorrhage is a rare entity that occurs uncommonly in adults and rarely in children. It has a typical clinical presentation, although to date, the cause for the majority of cases remains unknown. We present a series of cases where epidural haemorrhage was identified at post‐mortem , principly to the cervical cord, in cases outside the age range usually reported for clinical epidural haemorrhage, and with no underlying pathology to account for the finding. We present a hypothesis for a post‐mortem cause for this finding and consider that, in the absence of any other identifiable causation, then this is a post‐mortem occurrence similar to that of the Prinsloo–Gordon artefact of the soft tissues of the neck. This finding must be interpreted with care so as not to make the mistaken diagnosis of a nonaccidental head injury based on its finding, especially in the absence of intracranial, cranial nerve, optic nerve or eye pathologies.