Tetraplegia or paraplegia with brachial diparesis? What is the most appropriate designation for the motor deficit in patients with lower cervical spinal cord injury?

Abstract

The authors seek to clarify the nomenclature used to describe cervical spinal cord injuries, particularly the use of the terms "tetraplegia", "quadriplegia", "quadriparesis", "tetraparesis", "incomplete quadriplegia" or "incomplete tetraplegia" when applied to patients with lower cervical cord injuries. A review of the origin of the terms and nomenclature used currently to describe the neurological status of patients with SCI in the literature was performed. The terms "tetraplegia", "quadriplegia", "quadriparesis", "tetraparesis", "incomplete quadriplegia" or "incomplete tetraplegia" have been used very often to describe patients with complete lower cervical SCI despite the fact that the clinical scenario is all the same for most of these patients. Most of these patients have total loss of the motor voluntary movements of their lower trunk and inferior limbs, and partial impairment of movement of their superior limbs, preserving many motor functions of the proximal muscles of their arms (superior limbs). A potentially better descriptive term may be "paraplegia with brachial diparesis". In using the most appropriate terminology, the patients with lower cervical SCI currently referred as presenting with "tetraplegia", "quadriplegia", "quadriparesis", "tetraparesis", "incomplete quadriplegia" or "incomplete tetraplegia", might be better described as having "paraplegia with brachial diparesis".