Pathological features including apoptosis in subacute posttraumatic ascending myelopathy. Case report and review of the literature.

Subacute posttraumatic ascending myelopathy (SPAM) is a rare disorder that may gradually emerge in the first 1 to 3 weeks after a spinal cord injury and is unrelated to syrinx formation or mechanical instability. In addition to several theories that have been put forth to explain the origin of this syndrome, the authors propose a possible role for apoptosis in the causation and the progression of SPAM. They discuss the various theories that have been proposed thus far, to place the role of apoptosis in perspective and use their case as an illustration.