RESEARCH ARTICLE
“The Flipping Bullet” with Associated Intramedullary Dystrophic Calcification: An Unusual Cause for Migratory Myelopathy and Radiculopathy
Christopher H Hunt*, Gavin A McKenzie, Felix E Diehn, Jonathan M Morris, Christopher P Wood
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2012Volume: 6
First Page: 75
Last Page: 77
Publisher ID: TONIJ-6-75
DOI: 10.2174/1874440001206010075
PMID: 22942925
PMCID: PMC3431563
Article History:
Received Date: 29/6/2012Revision Received Date: 07/8/2012
Acceptance Date: 09/8/2012
Electronic publication date: 27/8/2012
Collection year: 2012

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
We report the case of a 24 year old male who had a retained bullet within his thoracic spine from a gunshot wound resulting in paraplegia. After 7 months he began experiencing painful dysesthesias at his sensory level. Repeat imaging demonstrated migration of the bullet as well as the development of intramedullary dystrophic calcification associated with the bullet. This case demonstrates not only the ability for retained bullets to migrate within the spinal canal but also demonstrates they can lead to remote symptoms due to the development of dystrophic calcification.