Brown-Sequard Syndrome

Excerpt

Famous Victorian scientist, Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard, explained a rare spinal cord injury known as Brown-Séquard's syndrome (BSS) in 1849. He presented the case to the British Medical Association's annual meeting in 1862, which involved a sea captain who had been stabbed in the neck. Brown Se'quard syndrome is an incomplete pattern of injury showing a hemisection of the spinal cord which results in weakness and paralysis on one side of the damage and loss of pain and temperature sensations on the opposite side. This depends on the site of injury which can also involve the cervical or sympathetic thoracic trunk resulting in Horner's syndrome. Overall, the symptoms depend on which part of the spinal cord is affected. It is also known as the hemisection of the spinal cord. As an incomplete spinal cord syndrome, the clinical presentation of BSS may range from mild to severe neurologic deficit.