Surfer's myelopathy

Abstract

We experienced a case of nontraumatic spinal cord injury associated with surfing. The patient was a tourist in Hawaii and first time surfer. He developed symptoms shortly after surfing, presenting with low back pain, lower extremity weakness, sensory changes, and urinary retention. Previously reported surfer's myelopathy has the same feature as the present case. The MRI demonstrated abnormal signal change in the lower thoracic spinal cord without evidence of acute or chronic canal stenosis. The CT angiography showed normal Adamkiewicz artery and anterior spinal artery without a vascular malformation. The MRI 7 months after the onset of symptoms showed atrophic change of the conus medullaris.