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Case Reports: Reminder of important clinical lesson
Spinal haemangioma with cauda equina syndrome in pregnancy
  1. Arathy Raj1,
  2. Anuja Abraham1,
  3. Preethi Raja Navaneethan1 and
  4. Vivek Mathew2
  1. 1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Unit III, Christian Medical College and Hospital Vellore, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India
  2. 2Department of Neurosciences, Christian Medical College and Hospital Vellore, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India
  1. Correspondence to Dr Anuja Abraham; anuja{at}cmcvellore.ac.in

Abstract

The true incidence of haemangiomas, which are the most common benign tumours in the spine, is not known as they are most often asymptomatic and are detected at autopsy. It can become symptomatic due to the haemodynamic and hormonal changes in pregnancy which cause sudden expansion of the lesion. In this paper, we present a case of a woman in her 30s, primigravida at 31 weeks’ gestation with acute urinary retention and neurological features suggestive of cauda equina syndrome. Imaging confirmed the diagnosis of vertebral haemangioma involving T12 vertebra encroaching the posterior dural space and abutting the cord. She underwent surgical excision of the haemangioma with complete recovery of neurological symptoms on postoperative follow-up.

  • Hemangioma
  • Pregnancy

https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2022-250306

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors AR wrote the article. AA and PRN were involved in management of the patient, correction and revision of the article. VM was involved in the follow-up of the patient and revision of the article. AA and AR contributed to the hand-drawn diagrams to illustrate the MRIs.

    • 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.

    • Case reports provide a valuable learning resource for the scientific community and can indicate areas of interest for future research. They should not be used in isolation to guide treatment choices or public health policy.

    • Competing interests None declared.

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