Pediatric spinal cord infarct: a rare cause of a rare disorder, (wo)man in barrel syndrome

The “man in barrel syndrome” is a condition which resembles the aspect of patient being constrained in a barrel in which patient presents with bilateral upper limb weakness. It has classically been attributed to supratentorial lesions in watershed zones. We present such a case in a 12-year-old child...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Child's nervous system 2021-08, Vol.37 (8), p.2673-2676
Main Authors: Yadav, Nishtha, Pendharkar, Hima, Kulkarni, Girish Baburao
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Case Report
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Neurosciences
Neurosurgery
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Summary:The “man in barrel syndrome” is a condition which resembles the aspect of patient being constrained in a barrel in which patient presents with bilateral upper limb weakness. It has classically been attributed to supratentorial lesions in watershed zones. We present such a case in a 12-year-old child who presented with bibrachial weakness and was noted to have cervical cord infarct on imaging. Spinal cord infarct is a rare cause of this syndrome, and until now only 20 cases have been described in which cervical cord infarct led to this presentation, all of them being adults. We describe first case report of bibrachial diplegia due to cord infarct in a child. Our case adds to the limited literature of cervical cord ischemia as a cause of “(wo) man in barrel syndrome” and re-iterates the fact that imaging of cervical cord should be considered while evaluating these cases.
ISSN:0256-7040
1433-0350
DOI:10.1007/s00381-020-04927-6