Clinical Reasoning: A 24-Year-Old Woman With Penetrating Neck Injury From a Needlefish

Neurology. 2024 Mar 26;102(6):e209225. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000209225. Epub 2024 Feb 20.

Abstract

Evaluating patients with a traumatic spinal cord injury can be complicated by other injuries. In this case, a 24-year-old woman injured by a needlefish presented with combined motor and sensory defects, cranial nerve deficits, and a blunt vascular injury. This case highlights the importance of neurologic and vascular localizations and an understanding of spinal cord injuries involving various ascending and descending tracts. Appreciation of these anatomical considerations through this case illustrates the diagnostic approach to neurologic evaluation. While we present a traumatic etiology for multiple neurologic syndromes, this case gives readers an opportunity to develop a comprehensive differential diagnosis and tailor investigations for other relevant etiologies. Readers walking through this stepwise process will ultimately arrive at several distinct but related diagnoses.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Animals
  • Beloniformes*
  • Clinical Reasoning
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Neck Injuries* / complications
  • Neck Injuries* / diagnostic imaging
  • Spinal Cord Injuries* / diagnosis
  • Spinal Cord Injuries* / diagnostic imaging
  • Wounds, Penetrating* / complications
  • Wounds, Penetrating* / diagnostic imaging
  • Young Adult