Spontaneous spinal hemorrhages. Results after operative treatment of epidural hematomas

Eight patients with spontaneous spinal epidural hemorrhages are presented. All eight initially had suffered from severe neck or back pain. In seven ca ses, progressive neurological deficits had developed, some of which led to complete paraplegia. On all eight patients operations were performed. After an average of 11 weeks' follow-up, full recovery from the preoperative pai n and neurological deficits could be seen in 6 of the patients. If spinal hemorrhage is treated by decompression at an early stage, there i s a good prognosis with respect to pain and neurological deficits. It was f ound that neurological deficits sometimes showed complete improvement, even if they were older than 36 hours before surgey was performed. In cases of severe local complaints in combination with progressive neurological defici ts a spinal hemorrhage always must be considered. The best diagnostic metho d is magnetic resonance imaging.