It is a rare spinal injury that primarily affects beginner surfers. It’s called surfer’s myelopathy, a rare, non-traumatic spinal cord injury.
“Patients have described over the course of their first or second time on a board, often during a first lesson, they experience back pain first, followed by weakness and numbness of the legs which can progress quickly over 30 minutes to two hours. In the most severe cases, it can lead to paraplegia or complete loss of strength or sensation below the waist,” said Dr. Stacy Brown, neurointensivist, The Queen’s Medical Center.
The condition is rare, but potentially very serious.
“And it is a non-traumatic injury, so no impact is involved – no broken bones, no disc herniation, muscles and ligaments are all intact,” Brown said.
As for treatment, Brown says surfer’s myelopathy is rare, and therefore has been slow and difficult to study the number of patients required to develop and establish new treatment strategies.
“But that is the process that we are in, and over the last few years at Queen’s we’ve started implementing high level stroke treatment methods in our care and service of myelopathy patients. So, this includes medications that boost the patient’s blood pressure, getting blood flow to the spine. Also, draining fluid from the spine, reducing pressure, rehabilitation, and physical therapy,” said Brown.
The first 24-hours after the injury is critical and treatment is time-sensitive.
“So, the time when these treatment strategies have any benefit, is right away,” Brown said.
And even better than treatment strategies -- is prevention.
Dr. Brown suggests sitting up on your surfboard rather than paddling out while lying on your stomach.
Face the horizon when idling, call 911 at the first sign of any symptoms.
To learn more about surfer’s myelopathy, including research and education efforts, contact nsi.research@queens.org