Journal of Clinical Anesthesia
Volume 21, Issue 7 , Pages 525-528, November 2009

Spinal epidural hematoma following epidural catheter removal in a paraplegic patient

  • Naveen Eipe, MBBS, MD (Clinical Fellow)

      Affiliations

    • Department of Anesthesiology, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada M4N 3M5
    • ,
  • Carlos E. Restrepo-Garces, MD (Clinical Fellow)

      Affiliations

    • Department of Anesthesiology, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada M4N 3M5
    • ,
  • Richard I. Aviv, MD, MRCP, FRCR (Associate Professor)

      Affiliations

    • Department of Medical Imaging, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada M4N 3M5
    • ,
  • Imad T. Awad, MBChB, FCARCSI (Assistant Professor)

      Affiliations

    • Department of Anesthesiology, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada M4N 3M5
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Tel.: +1 416 480 4864; fax: +1 416 480 6039.

Received 4 February 2008; received in revised form 29 November 2008; accepted 1 December 2008. published online 26 October 2009.

Abstract 

Spinal epidural hematoma is a rare and devastating complication of epidural catheter removal in an anticoagulated patient. The diagnosis could be quite challenging, especially in patients with preexisting neurological deficits. A 35-year-old patient with remote spinal cord injury and T4 level paraplegia developed a spinal epidural hematoma on the 7th postoperative day. The hematoma developed after epidural catheter removal with concurrent administration of unfractionated heparin.

Keywords: Injury- Spinal cord, Paraplegia, Drugs- Anticoagulation, Subcutaneous unfractionated heparin, Administration error, Technique- Epidural anesthesia- analgesia, Complication- Spinal epidural hematoma

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PII: S0952-8180(09)00257-8

doi:10.1016/j.jclinane.2008.12.020

Journal of Clinical Anesthesia
Volume 21, Issue 7 , Pages 525-528, November 2009

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