Spine Stenosis

Tethered Spinal Cord Syndrome

The spine is an extremely complex structure - think of it - each of us is born with 33 vertebrae and by the time we grow to adulthood, that number has been reduced to 24 because nine of these fuse together at various points along the spine. The cord floats in what is called the thecal sac - and this controls our ability to feel, sense, move, think, breathe.so when something happens such as tethered spinal cord syndrome, it strikes at the very heart of our sense of security.

First of all, let's define one or two of these complex words. Let's start with syndrome - this means that the patient exhibits a group of symptoms, that when studied together, are characteristic of a particular disorder or disease. Next, let us look at the scary word - pathophysiology: this is the study of changes in function which are associated with or are directly attributable to a disease or syndrome.

I've always found that, once you break big words down into small, easily digestible bits, they are much easier to understand. So, let's put the two together: the pathophysiology of a syndrome is the changes in function associated with a group of symptoms, which in their turn are characteristic of a particular disorder or disease. That wasn't so hard, was it?

So what does this have to do with tethered spinal cord syndrome, you ask? Everything, my friend, everything. This is a group of symptoms that occur because the patient has either a developmental (congenital) disorder - some defect in development that took place before birth - or has experienced spinal injury later on in life, anywhere from childhood forward.

Tethered spinal cord syndrome is a neurological disorder that is caused by the attachment of tissues that limit the free movement of the spinal cord within the spinal column. The attachments mean that the cord does not continue growing as the child grows and this causes numbness or weakness in the legs, low back pain, scoliosis (curvature) of the spine, and various other symptoms.

Is it possible to treat this problem? Yes; if possible, surgical intervention treatment is best done in childhood so the child has a chance to grow more or less normally. If surgery for tethered spinal cord syndrome is not possible, the spinal cord nerve roots can be surgically cut to relieve the patient's pain.

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