Abstract
Idiopathic herniation of the spinal cord is a rare disease with only 19 cases reported in the literature.
A 55-year-old woman with Brown-Séquard syndrome was diagnosed with spinal cord herniation, and underwent operation. During the operation, yellow ligament adhered to the dura mater, and the dura mater was thickened and reparated in three layers. In the latter lesion, a ventral part of the spinal cord was herniated from a defective area of the dura mater. This incarcerated cord was easily reduced and the defective area of the dura mater was sutured, but the patient's clinical symptons remained unchanged after operation.
An area of high signal intensity appeared in the cord on T2-weighted MRI one year after operation, and we thought that the nerve had degenerated. Our opinion is that spinal cord herniation should be surgically treated before the cord degenerates.
