Article Text
Statistics from Altmetric.com
The most common causes of nerve injury following regional anaesthesia are compression from haematoma, direct trauma and chemical neuritis.1 We describe a 26-year-old woman who had undergone an emergency caesarean section under spinal anaesthesia for fetal distress (category 1) in a peripheral hospital. The anaesthetist had used a 25-guage needle, while attempting to access the L3-L4 and L4-L5 intervertebral spaces in the midline, with the patient in the left lateral decubitus position. During the needle insertion, the patient experienced severe pain radiating down her right leg. Following the procedure, she developed right foot drop, right leg numbness and dysesthesia in an L4 to S1 dermatomal distribution. Five months after the delivery, the patient was referred to …
Footnotes
Contributors RS clinically analysed the case including the images and reviewed the drafts. SKN conceptualised the importance of and need for writing this report, analysed the history and reviewed the drafts. AG collected the initial data and wrote the first draft of the paper. PK critically evaluated the data, reviewed and contributed to the manuscript especially to various aspects of spinal anaesthesia procedure and its potential complications.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned. Externally peer reviewed by Khalid Hamandi and Holger Allroggen, Cardiff, UK.
Linked Articles
- Editors’ commentary
Read the full text or download the PDF:
Other content recommended for you
- Can compressive thoracic cord lesions cause a pure lower motor neurone syndrome?
- Obstetric anaesthesia: what a neurologist needs to know
- Improved outcomes for spinal versus general anesthesia for hip fracture surgery: a retrospective cohort study of the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program
- Regional versus General Anesthesia for Promoting Independence after Hip Fracture (REGAIN): protocol for a pragmatic, international multicentre trial
- Infiltration between the popliteal artery and the capsule of the knee (IPACK) block in knee surgery: a narrative review
- Rapidly progressive foot drop: an uncommon and underappreciated cause of Chiari I malformation and holocord syrinx
- General anesthesia is an acceptable choice for hip fracture surgery
- Pragmatic approach to neuraxial anesthesia in obstetric patients with disorders of the vertebral column, spinal cord and neuromuscular system
- The effect of anesthetic technique on mortality and major morbidity after hip fracture surgery: a retrospective, propensity-score matched-pairs cohort study
- Spinal anesthesia in a patient on monoclonal antibody treatment: a poisoned chalice? A case report