Subacute Combined Degeneration as a Red Herring for Acute Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury
Dylan L McCaleb, Rebecca Stewart, Aileen Giordano · 2026
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Description
Dylan L McCaleb, Rebecca Stewart, and Aileen Giordano report a case in which a vitamin deficiency masqueraded as a traumatic spinal cord injury, in a 2026 paper. A sixty-six-year-old man with recent nitrous oxide use came in with weak legs, numbness, and unsteady walking after repeated falls. A trauma workup found no injury, and he was sent home.
When symptoms kept worsening, further tests showed severe vitamin B12 deficiency caused by pernicious anemia. A neck scan revealed the bright signal pattern typical of subacute combined degeneration, the cord damage this deficiency causes. Despite vitamin replacement, his deficits persisted and he needed inpatient rehabilitation. The authors stress checking B12 when trauma tests come back negative.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Dylan L McCaleb, Rebecca Stewart, Aileen Giordano |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 11 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |