Looking for info on Brown-Sequard syndrome

[bruce]

I was recently diagnosed with Brown-Sequard syndrome. My rehab physician made this diagnosis because I have good motion on my left side but better sensation on my right, especially of pain and temperature. I understand these to be classic symptoms of the syndrome. He also said that if I work *hard* at physical therapy, I'll walk again.

I have not found any information of substance about Brown-Sequard syndrome on the internet. I did find one site that said 90% of Brown-Sequard patients walk again and 90% also regain bladder and bowel control, but with nothing backing up the statement.

Any Brown-Sequard people out there? Any pointers to good sites, journal articles or other info?

My injury is C6 and incomplete. I was injured 6 months ago in a skiing accident; that's a story for another time.

[SCI-Nurse]

The classic description is "ipsilateral (same side) paralysis and contralateral (opposit side) sensory loss". Most people with Brown Sequard have some impairment of proprioception (position sense) on both sides, but have good pain/temperature on their weaker side and poor pain/temperature on their stronger side. This is because the pain/temperature fibers cross over in the cord, while motor fibers cross over in the brain-stem. Many, but not all learn to walk again, and continence is common. Safety can be a major challenge as it is easy to injure the stronger side and not know it.

Here are a couple sites:

http://www.medmedia.com/o11/979.htm

http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic70.htm

http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Villa/6315/lessons/mednotes/bss.html

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/health_and_medical/disorders/brown-sequard.htm

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/brown-sequard/

(KLD)

[SCI-Nurse]

Bruce - Brown-Sequard Syndrome is also listed within the National Organization of Rare Diseases (NORD): http://www.rarediseases.org/cgi-bin/nord/abstrfly?id=zXLZC5oR&mv_arg=RDB%2d950&mv_pc=243 CRF

[CDR]

I have brown-sequard syndrome. My injury is C2 incomplete and I was injured about 5 months ago. If you'd like to talk or ask me any questions you can email me at Reid58@hotmail.com. Talk to you soon.

*Man is able to achieve any dream he is able to conceive*