Newly Diagnosed Multiple Sclerosis Presenting as Brown-Séquard Syndrome: A Case Report

Abstract

Introduction: Brown-Séquard syndrome is a rare neurological disorder due to hemisection of the spinal cord that can occur from a variety of causes, most commonly trauma. Case Report: We present a case of a 25-year-old woman presenting with Brown-Séquard syndrome as her first clinical presentation of multiple sclerosis. Conclusion: This case highlights the need to have demyelinating disease on the differential as an exceedingly rare, but important, possible cause of Brown-Séquard syndrome.

A 28-Year-Old Woman With Left-Sided Weakness and Atypical MRI Lesions

“…Moreover, her partial response to several immunomodulatory therapies lent credence to a possible inflammatory/autoimmune cause. Her enhancing cervical cord lesion was left-sided and eccentric (causing a hemicord lesion) that led her to present with a Brown-Séquard syndrome, which could be seen in inflammatory/autoimmune conditions, such as multiple sclerosis (MS), 1 although it should be noted that neoplastic lesions could also rarely cause a Brown-Séquard syndrome. The absence of brain lesions and the longitudinally extensive nature of her cervical cord lesion argued against MS, which tended to favor multiple discontinuous short-segment lesions in the spinal cord.…”