A 95-kg, 34-year-old male presented for exploration of the thoracic aorta to resect an apparent sarcoma. A significant complication for this surgery is that of paraplegia and/or paraparesis. Continuous monitoring of cerebrospinal fluid pressure and drainage to maintain the pressure at 10 mmHg or less has been advocated to preserve nominal spinal cord perfusion pressure. However, this interventi...

HTLV type 1 and 2 are both involved in actively spreading epidemics, affecting over 15 million people worldwide. HTLV-1 has been described as the more clinically significant one, being associated with diseases such as adult T-cell leukemia and tropical spastic paraparesis. We report here a case of tropical spastic paraparesis in an HIV-positive patient who did not report any history of travel o...

BACKGROUND We reviewed our experience to investigate the determinants of paraplegia/paraparesis after endovascular stent-graft repair of the thoracic aorta, to assess the influence of the artery of Adamkiewicz (ARM) detected by preoperative magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) and to identify patients at risk. METHODS Over a 5-year period (March 2001-June 2006), 149 patients underwent electiv...

In 1964, a progressive myelopathy involving the thoracic region was termed Tropical Spastic Paraparesis (TSP). Subsequently a similar myelopathy associated with HTLV-1 antibodies in both serum and CSF patients were found and named HAM (HTLV-1 associated myelopathy).1 The epidemiological, clinical and pathological features of cases from India are similar to the description form rest of World, th...

Between June 2008 and March 2009, 87 cats in Australia developed symmetrical hindlimb ataxia, paraparesis, tetraparesis, paraplegia or tetraplegia in association with eating an imported, irradiated dry pet food. This communication reports the clinical signs and outcomes of those cats.