Differential diagnosis and treatment of acute cauda equina syndrome in the human immunodeficiency virus positive patient: a case report and review of the literature

Table 1 Causes of cauda equina syndrome in human immunodeficiency virus positive patients

Anatomical compression	Spinal infection (especially in advanced HIV/AIDS)	Other causes
Abscess [32, 33]	Cryptococcus [34]	Connective tissue disease [24, 35]
Spinal hematoma (for example, from trauma) [36]	Cytomegalovirus [37]	Iatrogenic adhesive arachnoiditis [38]
Intervertebral disk hernia [28]	Epstein-Barr virus [39]	HIV (idiopathic cauda equina syndrome) [14]
Intrathecal disk fragment [7]	Herpes simplex virus (mainly HSV-2) [19]	Spinal ischemia [40]
Pathologic spinal fracture (for example, due to osteoporosis or neoplasia) [41]	Treponema pallidum [22]
Spinal neoplasia (especially lymphoma) [42–44]	Schistosoma [45]
Vertebral canal stenosis [46]	Toxoplasma [47]
	Mycobacterium tuberculosis [20]
	Varicella zoster virus [48, 49]

ISSN: 1752-1947