How serious is a hematoma on the spine?
A spinal hematoma is a collection of blood that compresses the spinal cord and nerve roots. Significant compression of the spinal cord can result in irreversible neurologic damage. Symptoms may include pain, weakness, numbness, difficulty walking, loss of bowel and/or bladder control, or paralysis.
What causes a hematoma on the spine?
Spinal hematomas are often idiopathic; however, other common causes include trauma, iatrogenic diagnostic or pain management interventions, vascular malformations, and coagulopathy or anticoagulant medications (2).
Can epidural cause arachnoid cyst?
Spinal epidural injection has been proposed a rare predisposing factor to the development of a symptomatic thoracolumbar intradural arachnoid cyst.
What is intradural cyst?
Arachnoidal intradural cysts (AIC) have no sex preference, occur at around the fourth-fifth decades of life and have characteristic intermittent root symptoms. They prefer the thoracic level and the posterior position. (Myelography images the cystic cavity (diverticular form). Surgical removal is usually easy.
How is a spinal epidural hematoma treated?
Treatment. Treatment of a spinal subdural or epidural hematoma is immediate surgical drainage. Patients taking coumarin anticoagulants are given phytonadione (vitamin K1) 2.5 to 10 mg subcutaneously and fresh frozen plasma as needed to normalize the INR (international normalized ratio).
What is epidural hematoma spinal?
Spinal epidural hematoma (SEH) is an accumulation of blood in the loose areolar tissue between the vertebrae and the dura of the spinal canal. Typically, the hematoma is asymptomatic, but in rare cases it will compress the spinal cord, with potentially devastating neurological consequences.
Is a subdural or epidural hematoma worse?
In contrast, the bleeding that produces subdural hematomas is more free to spread in the looser space beneath the dura mater and typically runs from the front of the head to the rear. This makes subdural hematomas more deadly. Who gets epidural hematomas? They usually occur in people with significant blows to the head.
What causes a spinal arachnoid cyst?
The cause of arachnoid cysts is currently unknown. Most instances are sporadic. Research suggests that these cysts develop when the arachnoid membrane splits, allowing cerebrospinal fluid to flow in and become trapped. Arachnoid cysts occur more often among males than females and can arise at any age.
What is a spinal arachnoid cyst?
Arachnoid cysts are fluid-filled sacs that occur on the arachnoid membrane that covers the brain (intracranial) and the spinal cord (spinal). There are three membranes covering these parts of the central nervous system: the dura mater, arachnoid, and pia mater.