Spinal cord ischemia in Scheuermann disease: A report of three cases.

BACKGROUND: Neurological complications in Scheuermann's disease are rare but serious.

CASE REPORTS: We report three cases of severe neurological deficit due to medullar ischemia attributable to the compression of a radiculomedullar artery by thoracic (two cases) and lumbar (one case) disc herniations associated with Scheuermann's disease. They were not treated surgically because of the absence of direct spinal cord compression or definitive spinal cord ischemia. Those young patients still have severe neurological damage. An earlier management could have prevented them.

CONCLUSION: When doubting about any compressive sign, MRI should be performed with diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) sequences in emergency.