Wallerian Degeneration Surveyed in Poliomyelitis

Poliomyelitis is a highly infectious disease rendering varying degrees of respiratory illness, gastroenteritis, malaise and potentially severe forms of paralysis. Infection is generated by a virus belonging in the Picornaviridae family. This enterovirus infects the human body most often through the fecal-oral route and proliferates within the mucosa of the pharynx and gastrointestinal tract. The virus ordinarily invades the lymphoid tissue and enters the bloodstream where it may enter the central nervous system and infect motor neurons in the ventral horn of the spinal cord and brainstem. Replication of the virus within the motor neurons induces neuronal cell death and axonal degeneration, resulting in the denervation of skeletal muscle and the subsequent manifestation of poliomyelitis. Patients with poliomyelitis will experience asymmetric muscle atrophy and flaccid paralysis. Here, we report on a case of a 67 year old male cadaver with poliomyelitis discovered during a routine cadaveric dissection in the gross anatomy lab at the University of Bridgeport