Acute cervical ischemic myelopathy: anterior spinal artery syndrome

Acute ischemic myelopathy is an uncommon cause of spinal lesion. Its most common location is the thoracic-lumbar region in the territory of the anterior spinal artery. The involvement of the cervical segment is occasional and with certain etiologic features that differentiates it from the involvement of other spinal segments. We report here two patients with no vascular risk factors who had an infarction in the territory of the cervical anterior spinal artery after physical exertion in one of the patients. We suggest the compression of anterior radicular-medullary arteries or the cervical anterior spinal artery against the anterior bone wall of the spinal canal as possible pathogenic mechanism.