What is Cauda equina Syndrome What are the symptoms of cauda equina syndrome?

Cauda equina syndrome (CES) refers to the cauda equina nerve damage caused by lumbar spine injury, with urinary and urinary incontinence, sexual function and saddle sensory dysfunction as the main symptoms and signs. If it is not timely**, it will lead to impaired cauda equina nerve function and seriously affect the patient's quality of life.

The cauda equina nerve refers to the lumbosacral nerve root below the conus medullaris called the cauda equina nerve, which is composed of 10 pairs of nerve roots from L2-5, S1-5 and the caudal segment.

The continuation of the nerve in the spinal canal is mainly composed of nerve fibers, and its main function is to control the sensory, motor, urinary and urinary functions of the lower limbs, and the sensorimotor function of the saddle area. When the cauda equina nerve in the spinal canal is injured, or invaded by tumors, inflammation and other factors, the cauda equina nerve function is impaired, and the patient will have sensory, motor disorders, urinary and urinary dysfunction, saddle sensation, motor and other functional impairments in both lower limbs.

Surgery can relieve the compression of the lesion on the cauda equina nerve, loosen the adhesions, and restore nerve function. Benign tumors can be surgically resected, but malignant tumors are often difficult to completely resect.

Cauda equina syndrome is a serious threat to daily life, but what are the causes of it? Cauda equina syndrome is a series of syndromes caused by nerve root problems, and there are many kinds of detailed statistics in modern science, and the possible factors that are known to cause damage to the cauda equina nerve at this stage are as follows

Congenital dysplasia, or acquired degeneration of the lumbar spine: patients with developmental spinal stenosis and degenerative lesions of the lumbar spine, usually due to congenital or acquired physical factors that cause spinal stenosis, syndrome of nerve compression caused by lumbar plate or ligamentum flavum hypertrophy, or nerve compression caused by lateral recess stenosis.

Spondylitis, spondylitis: these patients are more common in the lumbar spondylosis series, and patients in the early and middle stages generally have few cases accompanied by neurological syndromes, but in the late stage, it is easy to combine cauda equina nerve damage to cause more syndromes.

Accidental, vertebral or adnexal fractures: Lumbar vertebral fractures or blowout fractures usually result in direct nerve damage from bone fragments due to a series of accidents such as fall injuries, firearm injuries, knife wounds, car accidents, etc. Because it is in the body, it is easy to cause bleeding, scarring, and even deeper injury to the conus or spinal cord, resulting in a very severe or irreversible cauda equina syndrome.

Spinal cysts, tumors, hemorrhage: due to the traces of dural sac compression in some patients and the mass in the spinal canal, resulting in angiogram finding that the mass is active hemorrhage, the hematoma compresses the cauda equina nerve, resulting in damage to the cauda equina nerve, and the same is true for spontaneous cysts or tumors in the body, and complications occur due to compression or damage to the cauda equina nerve caused by compression.

Surgery, the use of anesthetics: There are many uncertain components and probability problems in surgery, especially in the lumbar spine compression of nerves, some patients may go through the inevitable operation in surgery, resulting in more nerve damage, cauda equina syndrome or some kind of implicated symptoms, resulting in irreversible damage. If the anesthetic enters the subarachnoid space, it is easy to cause edema or adhesion of the cauda equina nerve, or accidentally injure the extradural sac choroid plexus to form a hematoma and compress the nerve, and then there is a toxic effect that directly damages the nerve and produces symptoms.

What causes cauda equina syndrome? What causes cauda equina syndrome? What causes cauda equina syndrome?

What causes cauda equina syndrome? What causes cauda equina syndrome? What causes cauda equina syndrome?

Severe radicular pain, sciatica, dysplynia, sexual dysfunction, local tightness, motor dysfunction, sensory dysfunction, psychiatric symptoms, sleep problems, muscle wasting, gastrointestinal malfunction. Most patients with cauda equina nerve injury will be accompanied by depression, a small number of patients with sleep disorders, and constipation is a symptom that 80% of patients with cauda equina nerve injury have experienced. Cauda equina nerve injury is not only a sign of movement disorders, including some complications affected by the mental level, but also the key to the difficulty of recovery, and traditional Chinese medicine not only has the hope of curing motor symptoms and recovering most of the symptoms, but also has great significance for the mental symptoms of cauda equina nerve injury.

It should be emphasized in advance that the premise of whether the cauda equina nerve nerve can be repaired depends on the severity of the nerve damage in the patient's body. In general, there are three levels of such nerve damage. Patients or family members can find out in advance and then determine which level they belong to based on their own physical conditions.

This is only a large part of the range, in the process of patient recuperation, there must be special cases, and patients in this situation still need to be treated differently.

The first is when the nerve is struck or slightly pinched before the patient becomes ill. As a result, some of the nerves may be temporarily unfunctional, or they may be able to function normally, but some abnormal function occurs. In terms of our cauda equina nerve injury, similar to the corresponding compression caused by a bulging or slight herniation of the lumbar disc in the early stage of the patient, the patient's presentation is usually paresthesia in the lower extremities, intermittent claudication, or pain and numbness that may be tolerable at the beginning.

This type of nerve damage is in a recoverable state.

The second is the interruption of the patient's neuraxial protrusion, similar to sudden nerve compression, trauma, fall injury, etc., such patients also have the possibility of self-recovery due to the intact nerve continuity. However, depending on the degree of nerve entrapment of the patient, it may take longer. The recovery period for cauda equina nerve injury is usually within half a year after compression, followed by two years, and it is possible to gradually return to normal life through appropriate symptomatic methods.

Patients with this type of cauda equina syndrome usually have abnormal fecal function or decreased sensory perception of the lower limbs, partial loss of function, and so on. There is also room for recovery, but it is more time-consuming than the first one.

The third is that the patient has a nerve rupture, which usually refers to a tear and rupture of the nerve due to a sharp injury or an open fracture. This complete neurological disruption cannot be fully recovered by self-repair and physiotherapy. Such patients are usually due to severe traumatic factors or iatrogenic unavoidable injuries.

Modern medical care is unable to restore the complete fracture to people's initial functional state. Usually, in patients with cauda equina syndrome, the cauda equina nerve is completely ruptured. Patients may present with fecal incontinence, paralysis of the lower limbs, muscle atrophy and other manifestations.

Of course, there is also a slight damage to the position of the cauda equina nerve, which may be mainly due to partial dysfunction, if the patient is younger, the nerve activity is better, and the symptomatic ** can also be restored to a healthy life, but more or less some symptomatic characteristics remain.

CES is more common in lumbar spine diseases, due to the complex clinical manifestations, patients can be distributed in neurology, orthopedics, and urology. Diagnosis should be based on history, clinical findings, and ancillary features.

Radiology ancillary examinations can clearly and intuitively reflect the spinal canal and the dural sac and cauda equina in the spinal canal. Complete lesions of conus medullaris and cauda equina should be distinguished to facilitate the determination of ** and prognosis.

When there are symptoms such as sensory abnormalities in the lower limbs, accompanied by spontaneous pain, numbness in the perineal area, abnormal urine and bowel movements, and claudication when walking, it may be an abnormality of the cauda equina nerve.

Pain in the lower extremities may be due to rheumatism or compression of intervertebral nerves.

Guidance: It is recommended that patients should go to the orthopedic department of the hospital to take a CT below the waist to find out the cause and treat the symptoms**.

Mainly fecal dysfunction, lower limb movement disorders, and sensory and sensory disorders, men may have sexual dysfunction.