TITLE:
Spontaneous Spinal Epidural Hematoma Causing Paraplegia: A Case Report
AUTHORS:
Oumar Coulibaly, Lamine Habibou, Olory Togbé Régis, Nizar El Fatemi, Rachid Gana, Rachid Maaqili, Mohamed Jiddane, Fouad Bellakhdar
KEYWORDS:
Spontaneous Spinal Epidural Hematoma, Spinal Cord Compression, MRI, Laminectomy
JOURNAL NAME:
World Journal of Neuroscience,
Vol.5 No.4,
July
30,
2015
ABSTRACT: A spontaneous spinal epidural hematoma without any identified
etiology is a very rare entity. We report here a 44 years old woman admitted
within our department for 04 days of severe back pain complicated rapidly of
bilateral lower-limbs weakness and urinary retention. Neurological examination
found a complete paraplegia (0/5
stergh), with incomplete sensory
deficit below the T-10 level, bowel and bladder dysfunction, decreased deep and
superficial reflex. MRI with different sequences showed a large epidural mass
lesion with slightly high signal intensity on T1-weighted images and
heterogeneous low signal intensity on T2-weighted images from T11 to L1
suggesting an epidural hematoma. She underwent an urgent total laminectomy from
T11 to L1 following by a complete
removal of a large dark and compact epidural hematoma compressing the spinal
cord. Operatively, there’s no sign suggesting an AVM. Postoperative course was
uneventful and she was discharged ten days after surgery with complete
recovery.