Neuropathology of the spinal cord.

The neuropathology of the spinal cord is described and illustrated from the viewpoint of a neuropathologist observing at necropsy the many traumas and pathologic diseases affecting the spinal cord. The article provides the clinician with an insight into the disease processes and anatomic derangements underlying the neurologic deficits in paraplegia and quadriplegia. Today, the clinical examination of patients with spinal cord trauma or spinal cord disease is greatly assisted by many anciliary investigations, notably, radiology and the newer imaging techniques now applied to successfully to the spinal cord. Comparison of the patient's neuropathology with the classical neurophathology of the spinal cord, provided in this article, remains important for the clinician.