Constipation in transverse myelitis.

Justine Chinnappan, Abinash Parajuli, Huda Marcus, Ghassan Bachuwa

BMJ case reports 2023 Mar 06

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Transverse myelitis is an extremely rare neuroinflammatory disorder. About half of the affected patients develop paraplegia associated with urinary and bowel dysfunction. The bowel dysfunction is thought to be benign and is usually managed with dietary management and laxatives. We report a case of a man in his 60s presenting with transverse myelitis and the acute disease course complicated with treatment refractory intestinal dysfunction resulting in intestinal perforation, eventually leading to his death. Thus, this case helps us weigh the fact that intestinal dysfunction in the case of transverse myelitis is not always benign but can lead to deadly outcomes as well. © BMJ Publishing Group Limited 2023. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.