Another Back Pain Poll

[DrQuinn]

Just curious....

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[DrMom]

I haven't personally had one yet, but just last month we had something like 4 in dx in our ED.

 

[DrQuinn]

It does come in waves, I think. My third day as a brand new attending I had one. Sheesh! I did look like a bad-ass, though, in front of all my new colleagues.

Shhhh, its a secret. My patient said "My primary doctor sent me here for an MRI because of some horse's tail syndrome...."

Q

 

[Chronic Student]

Anecdotally, in the last five months my SP and I have seen one epidural hematoma (from plavix and an LP), two cases of cauda equina syndrome and one case of Brown-Sequard (the only one I actually Dx'd).

-Mike

 

[Sweet Tea]

I've seen 2 epidural abscesses. One was my patient on medicine (diagnosis made loooong time before our team rotated there, and the other was my aunt. Since I saw neither of them in the ED they may not really count in your poll.

 

[Dr.Evil1]

I know that I might have come off like Dr. Jellyfinger in the last poll but I don't think this poll will tell us anything. I doubt there is anyone on SDN that has personally seen >10 cases of spinal epidural abscess or cauda equina syndrome. A better poll would have the cutoff at 1 or 2, not 10.

I have seen 1 patient in the ED that actually had spinal epidural abscess but that patient was signed over to me as he was in MRI.

On another note: this afternoon on the Jim Rome show one of the guests described Steve Spurrier as having the likeability of a proctologist's index finger. Hilarious.

 

[ERMudPhud]

If you lump all the various cord compression syndromes I've seen together I'm sure its more than 10. Enough that individual cases no longer stand out in my memory.