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Radiation Myelopathy

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Late Sequelae in Oncology

Part of the book series: Medical Radiology ((Med Radiol Radiat Oncol))

Abstract

Radiation myelitis can be defined as radiation-induced injury of the spinal cord with chronic progressive paresis and paralysis. Diagnosis of radiation myelitis requires radiation exposure of the spinal cord and occurrence of neurological symptoms after a symptom-free interval. Radiation exposure may result from direct irradiation of the cord for spinal tumors. More often, irradiation of extraspinal tumors or unintentional exposure is the cause. Radiation myelitis has mainly been observed after treatment for head and neck cancer, bronchogenic carcinoma, thyroid cancer, or malignant lym-phomas (Boden 1948; Eichhorn et al. 1972; Wara et al. 1975; Reinhold et al. 1976; Abbatucci et al.

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© 1995 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Keilholz, L., Dunst, J. (1995). Radiation Myelopathy. In: Dunst, J., Sauer, R. (eds) Late Sequelae in Oncology. Medical Radiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-46794-3_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-46794-3_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-46796-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-46794-3

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