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CASE REPORT
Contained ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm presenting as cauda equina syndrome
  1. Serge A Engamba1,2,3,
  2. Dovile Garaleviciene1,
  3. Jonathan Baldry1
  1. 1Department of Accident and Emergency, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, Norwich, UK
  2. 2Department of Accident and Emergency, James Paget Hospital, Great Yarmouth, UK
  3. 3University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Serge A Engamba, aesambe{at}gmail.com

Summary

This is the case report of a contained ruptured aortic aneurysm presenting with acute cauda equina syndrome. The patient was a 79-year-old man. A literature search revealed various unusual presentations of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), including femoral neuropathy, hip pain and others; however, there are no other reports of cauda equina-like syndrome. The present case is therefore another unusual presentation of ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm and reiterates the utmost importance of careful history taking and clinical examination. Abdominal aortic aneurysm rupture should always be considered in the differential diagnosis of sudden onset isolated lower limb neuropathies and or pain.

https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2016-216602

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter Follow Serge Engamba at @aesambe

    • Contributors All authors have made an individual contribution to the writing of the article and also have been involved with the patient's care during his last emergency department admission. SAE initiated this work under the supervision of DG, and both have attended to the patient in the course of their normal medical practice at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital—Emergency Department. Then, owing to the patient's unusual presentation they followed up the his progress and management within the hospital. SAE contributed to conception and initial design of the work and drafted the article. SAE and DG contributed to data collection and data analysis and interpretation. DG and JB contributed to critical revision of the article. JB also provided general support all through the exercise and facilitated access to data and to the patient's family for the purposes of obtaining due consent. All authors provided final approval of the version to be published. All authors are aware of the publication and have ratified this contributorship statement prior to current submission.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.