Author(s)

Fachuan Nie^*, Suxia Wang, Jian Cui

Pain Department of Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China.

An outward-going intervertebral foramina puncture along the side of lumbar vertebra spinous process was used to avoid infusing drugs into the subarachnoid space. However, we still had an inadvertent malpractice. The patient was diagnosed with lumbar discogenic lower back pain and was administrated an outward-going intervertebral foramina puncture through the side of lumbar vertebra spinous process (L₅-S₁). The drug mixture, containing triamcinolone acetonide suspension, cyanocobalamin and bupivacaine HCl, was injected. The patient had palpitations, chest tightness, dyspnea, bradycardia, and hypotension 3 min right after the injection. The vital signs gradually stabilized after treatment with atropine sulfate; however, he had complete sensorimotor loss below the level of distribution of the T₂ spinal nerve. The cerebrospinal fluid pressure was lower in the subarachnoid space and the cerebrospinal fluid was slightly turbid and light pink in color. Six hours later, the sensory, motor, defecation, and urination functions returned to normal level. The patient had follow-up evaluations at 1, 3, and 6 months. The lumbar and hip pain was mild-to-severe at times as usual, but there were no other neurologic sequelae. Conclusions: This case showed that there is a risk that drugs may stray into the subarachnoid space during an outward-going intervertebral foramina puncture through the side of lumbar vertebral spinous process. The complication may occur due to a distal nerve root cyst. The result of triamcinolone acetonide suspension and cyanocobalamin injection into the cerebrospinal fluid was not as serious as we imagined.

Interventional Therapy, Paravertebral Injection, Pain Treatments, Accident, Subarachnoid Space, Cerebrospinal Fluid

Nie, F. , Wang, S. and Cui, J. (2016) Inadvertent Application of a Drug Mixture into the Subarachnoid Space When Performing an Outward-Going Lumbar Intervertebral Foramina Injection. World Journal of Neuroscience, 6, 85-89. doi: 10.4236/wjns.2016.62011.