Emergency imaging of the spine in the non-trauma patient

Non-traumatic spinal emergencies include all those clinical situations that present with acute and/or rapidly progressive signs and symptoms of spinal cord-spinal nerve/root compromise. These can be a result of extrinsic spinal radiculomedullary compression or of intrinsic pathology. All of these conditions require rapid diagnostic analysis: the recognition of a compressive or expanding spinal cord-canal lesion makes it possible to determine a surgical solution, whereas its exclusion guides diagnosis and treatment in other directions. The main causes of non-traumatic acute and subacute myelopathic and/or radiculopathic syndromes are given in Table 1. © 2006 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.