Spine and Spinal Cord Emergencies: Vascular and Infectious Causes

This content presents infectious and vascular spinal emergencies, including epidural abscess, nontraumatic epidural hematoma, vascular malformations, and spinal cord infarction. The spine is subjected to multiple potential insults, such as trauma, infection, ischemia, hemorrhage, tumor, inflammation, and degeneration. All of these processes can lead to the sudden onset of neurologic symptoms, such as motor weaknesses, bowel and bladder incontinence, and sensory changes. Therefore, prompt recognition of these entities is important to reverse or minimize potential neurologic injury. The authors discuss several infectious and vascular spinal emergencies, including epidural abscess, nontraumatic epidural hematoma, vascular malformations, and spinal cord infarction.