Transverse Myelitis

The term “myelopathy” refers to spinal cord dysfunction. The term transverse myelitis (TM) commonly refers to an acquired inflammatory disorder of the spinal cord resulting in various degrees of motor, sensory and autonomic impairment. The word “myelitis” refers to inflammation of the spinal cord and the word “transverse” refers to inflammation that spreads across the transverse section on the spinal cord at any particular level. Since not all forms of TM involve the entire transverse section of the spinal cord, a more appropriate term would be “inflammatory myelopathy” or simply “myelitis”. TM can occur as an independent entity (idiopathic TM) where the presumed etiology is a post-infectious immune-mediated pathology. It can also occur as a manifestation of neuro-immunological disorders (disease associated TM) like multiple sclerosis (MS), neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD) or acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM). While evaluating patients with TM, it is important to rule out compressive and non-inflammatory causes of myelopathy and to delineate the various underlying etiologies since the treatment, risk of recurrence and prognosis varies according to the type of TM.