The term myelitis is a nonspecific term for inflammation of the spinal cord. The spinal cord carries motor nerve fibers to the limbs and trunk and sensory fibers from the body back to the brain. Inflammation within the spinal cord interrupts these pathways and causes the common presenting symptoms which include limb weakness, sensory disturbance, bowel and bladder dysfunction, back pain and radicular pain (pain in the distribution of a single spinal nerve).