CERVICAL CONJOINED NERVE ROOT VARIANT - PREOPERATIVE IMAGING AND SURGICAL CONFIRMATION

A case of a nerve root anomaly in a patient presenting with cervical r adiculopathy is presented. The patient was treated with posterolateral exploration and decompression, resulting in relief of pain and improv ement in strength. Both the preoperative contrast-enhanced computerize d tomography scan and the magnetic resonance image demonstrated an abn ormality behind the C-4 body extending from the right C3-4 neural fora men to. the neural foramen at C4-5. At surgery, a dural-encased struct ure was discovered connecting the C-4 and C-5 nerve roots within the s pinal canal. This paper describes the first reported case of a cervica l nerve root anomaly of this type, representing a variant of a conjoin ed nerve root. The occurrence of such nerve root anomalies in the cerv ical spine should be entered into the differential diagnosis and treat ment of cervical radiculopathy.