Acute non-traumatic transverse syndrome from a neurosurgical standpoint.

With a seventh of 233 neuro-surgical patients operated on in the area of the spinal canal, an acute or sub-acute transverse syndrome had become manifest before operation. The analysis of these cases shows that 2 out of 12 cervical, and 12 out of 100 lumbar cases of dislocation of the disk cause an acute or sub-acute transverse lesion of the cord with paraplegia. In 56 cases of intradural extra-medullary tumours, no acute development was observed. However, this was seen in 55% of the extra-dural tumour growths. The role of a vasal component in the event of speedy development of the transverse symptomatology in such cases is mentioned.