COMPRESSION OF SPINAL CORD AND NERVE ROOTS BY HERNIATION OF THE NUCLEUS PULPOSUS IN THE CERVICAL REGION

Abstract

In 1927 there was brought together for the first time, as representing a clinical entity, a group of unusual "tumors" arising from the cervical intervertebral disks (Stookey). Scattered reports of such lesions had appeared previously, notably Adson's report of a case and a mention of one by Elsberg in his "Tumors of the Spinal Cord." The condition, however, was not generally recognized as distinct from other vertebral tumors, and no reference to it is to be found in such standard texts as those of Elsberg, Bruns, Schlesinger, Lubarsch and Ostertag and Antoni. On the basis of the histologic picture and because at the time no other explanation of the tumor-like masses seemed plausible, they were regarded as chondromatous new growths and were designated ventral extradural cervical chondromas. The extensive studies of Schmorl (1929) and Andrae (1929) on the spinal column and their elucidation of the nature and structure of the