clinical features
Last reviewed 06/2022
The conus medullaris often lies below its normal level where it is tethered by a tight filum terminale. This causes the cord to stretch as the child grows, resulting in progressive back pain and neurological impairment, for example:
- asymmetric development of muscle bulk in the lower limbs - hemihypertrophy
- weakness
- incontinence
- trophic ulceration of the feet
- pes cavus
Symptoms are not necessarily related to periods of rapid axial growth.