Lesions of spine and cord

Abstract

In the following sections, the material presented has been restricted to the sort commonly encountered in purely neurosurgical practice. The effect of such arbitrary selection is immediately apparent with regard to vertebral lesions, where primary neoplasms are omitted; apart from discogenic disease the neuropathologist will only receive extradural tissues when parenchymal or radicular impingement occurs and, even then, primary osseous conditions are excluded, being normally handled by the orthopaedic surgeons. Conversely, the routine management of discogenic and other mechanical disturbances of root and cord function in most neurosurgical units, constitutes a unique area of extrameningeal pathology, which MR has made very much more relevant than formerly.