A 54-year-old male presented with spontaneous acute epidural hematoma in the ventral cervical spine. The neurological deficits gradually improved spontaneously before surgery commenced. Serial magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated disappearance of the hematoma. He was managed conservatively and was discharged without deficits about 1 month after onset. Immediate surgical decompression may not...

Spinal epidural hematoma is a rare but serious neurological complication of neuraxial anesthesia. Enoxaparin sodium is a low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) for use in preventing deep venous thrombosis in patients undergoing total hip arthroplasty and total knee arthroplasty. Hemorrhage is an uncommon but documented adverse reaction when using LMWH. We report a case of epidural hematoma after l...

The case of a 43-year-old Taiwanese man who presented with spinal epidural hematoma following intravenous administration of recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rTPA) and heparin therapy for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is reported. Upper back pain and progressive neurological dysfunction ensued, secondary to spinal epidural hematoma with spinal cord compression. The patient did not r...

A 57-year-old female presenting with acute-onset paraplegia was referred for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of cervico-dorsal spine. On MRI, multiple tortuous dilated vessels were noted in the epidural space with long segment cord compression and imaging features of compressive myelopathy. Associated small acute cervico-dorsal epidural hematoma was also noted in the same region. Computed tomo...

spinal epidural haemorrhage may present as back pain associated with radicular symptoms and can be a catastrophic clinical scenario with progression to paraplegia or even sudden death. being a rare entity, it needs a high index ofclinical suspicion to diagnose it. fractures have been documented as a cause of hematorrachis but such hematomas only extend to one or two vertebral segments. large ep...

Spontaneous spinal epidural hematoma (SEH) is described as a spontaneous collection of blood in the spinal epidural space and often causes devastating sequelae unless it is diagnosed in time and effectively managed. Incidence rate is estimated at 0.1 per 100,000 individuals. Studies show that most cases occur in >40 year-olds (1, 2). Ethiopathogenesis is usually related to neoplasms, coagulopat...

EPIDURAL analgesia is most often used for postoperative pain relief, whereas it is no longer so commonly used for long-term treatment of pain from malignant diseases. For perioperative use, the epidural catheter is most frequently inserted before induction of anesthesia while the patient is awake, although there has recently been some debate as to whether regional techniques should or should no...

Spinal epidural hematoma (SEH) comprises a heterogeneous group of disorders with the final common result of hemorrhage in the spinal epidural space. In this review, the English language literature on SEH is examined. SEH may be acute or chronic, spontaneous, posttraumatic, or iatrogenic. Its occurrence appears to be particularly associated with acquired coagulopathy from medications and disease...

Copyright © 2017 Massachusetts Medical Society. Acute compression of the spinal cord is a devastating but treatable disorder. Diseases that cause acute spinal cord compression constitute a special category because they originate in the spinal column and narrow the spinal canal. This review addresses the disorders that account for most instances of acute spinal cord compression: trauma, tumor, e...

We report a series of epidural hematomas which cause neurologic deterioration after spinal surgery, and have taken risk factors and prognostic factors into consideration. We retrospectively reviewed the database of 3720 cases of spine operation in a single institute over 7 years (1998 April- 2005 July). Nine patients who demonstrated neurologic deterioration after surgery and required surgical ...