Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 June 2026
A 58-year-old man presents to the emergency department unable to walk. He reports that 3 weeks ago he tested COVID positive but only had minimal cough and gastrointestinal symptoms. One week after his COVID symptoms resolved, he noticed mild low back pain and pins and needles sensation in his feet. His sensory symptoms worsened over 2–3 days, and he began to notice difficulty walking and his legs felt “heavy.” Over the past few days his leg weakness has significantly worsened to the point of not being able to stand, and he has developed the same tingling sensation in his hands with new difficulty holding objects. He denies recent neck or back trauma, any visual symptoms, fever, or similar symptoms in the past.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.