Postlumbar puncture arachnoiditis mimicking epidural abscess

Lumbar spinal arachnoiditis occurring after diagnostic lumbar puncture is a very rare condition. Arachnoiditis may also present with fever and elevated infection markers and may mimic epidural abscess, which is one of the well known infectious complications of lumbar puncture. We report the case of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMJ case reports 2013-11, Vol.2013, p.bcr2013200169
Main Authors: Gürbüz, Mehmet Sabri, Erdoğan, Barıs, Yüksel, Mehmet Onur, Somay, Hakan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abscesses
Arachnoiditis - diagnosis
Arachnoiditis - etiology
Asia
Back pain
Back surgery
Cerebrospinal fluid
Cysts
Diagnosis, Differential
Diagnostic tests
Epidural
Epidural Abscess - diagnosis
Guillain-Barre syndrome
Humans
Infections
Learning from Errors
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Microorganisms
Middle Aged
Spinal cord
Spinal Puncture - adverse effects
White
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Summary:Lumbar spinal arachnoiditis occurring after diagnostic lumbar puncture is a very rare condition. Arachnoiditis may also present with fever and elevated infection markers and may mimic epidural abscess, which is one of the well known infectious complications of lumbar puncture. We report the case of a 56-year-old man with lumbar spinal arachnoiditis occurring after diagnostic lumbar puncture who was operated on under a misdiagnosis of epidural abscess. In the intraoperative and postoperative microbiological and histopathological examination, no epidural abscess was detected. To our knowledge, this is the first case of a patient with postlumbar puncture arachnoiditis operated on under a misdiagnosis of epidural abscess reported in the literature. The authors suggest that arachnoiditis may mimic epidural abscess due to its clinical and radiological features and should be considered in the differential diagnosis of complications of lumbar puncture.
ISSN:1757-790X
1757-790X
DOI:10.1136/bcr-2013-200169