Flexion myelopathy of the thoracic spine

Abstract

The authors report a rare case of surgically treated symptomatic thoracic kyphosis caused by dynamic compression in an elderly man. Myelopathy due to thoracic kyphosis has been reported in patients with congenital kyphosis, Scheuermann dorsal kyphosis, and Cushing disease, but to the authors' knowledge this is the first report of dynamic kyphosis in an elderly person. This otherwise healthy 84-year-old man presented with a 2-year history of progressive difficulty in walking and bilateral leg dysesthesia. Despite several cervical and lumbar surgeries, his symptoms gradually worsened. A radiological examination revealed severe thoracic kyphosis, with a lateral Cobb angle of 59 degrees from T-2 to T-12. On a dynamic computed tomography (CT) myelogram, severe thoracic spinal cord draping and stretching on flexion was demonstrated. On extension, however, imaging studies failed to show draping or stretching. Posterior corrective fusion was performed with instrumentation from T-2 to T-9. Postoperative CT myelography demonstrated no significant spinal cord compression with restoration of the cerebrospinal fluid space anterior to the spinal cord, and the successful correction of the kyphosis to 44 degrees. The patient's neurological sequelae gradually resolved throughout 6 months of follow up.