Rehabilitation and Long-Term Course of Nontraumatic Myelopathy Associated with Surfing

Abstract

A nontraumatic spinal cord injury related to surfing is called surfer's myelopathy. The case of a 26-yr-old man who became paraplegic after surfing without apparent traumatic events is described. Physical examination revealed a spinal cord injury at T12 according to the American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale A. The initial magnetic resonance image revealed a fusiform swelling of the spinal cord from T7-8 to the conus, which was hyperintense on T2-weighted images. After 6 mos of rehabilitation, the patient was followed for more than 1 yr after onset. He became able to walk with knee-ankle-foot-orthoses without assistance. A magnetic resonance image obtained 1 yr after the onset of paraplegia showed an atrophic spinal cord from T7-8 to the conus. The course of the neurologic findings and the imaging studies suggest that the pathogenesis of surfer's myelopathy may be ischemia of the anterior spinal artery territory induced by the abnormal trunk posture while surfing.