IMAGES IN EMERGENCY MEDICINE
Pneumocephalus after epidural injections
Darnall Army Medical Center, Fort Hood, Texas, USA
Correspondence to:
Dr R B Nolan, 209 Liscio Loop, Georgetown, TX 78628, USA; irisherdo@yahoo.com
Accepted 24 November 2006
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Two cases of pneumocephalus are described, one after epidural anaesthesia and one after a steroid injection in the lumbar spine.
The first case was a 28-year-old woman who presented with a severe headache, numbness in the upper extremities, photophobia and vomiting 3 days post partum from a vaginal delivery and an epidural anaesthesia. The second case was a 37-year-old-man who had recently been treated in a local pain clinic with lumbar steroid injections and who presented 24 h later complaining of a severe headache, nausea, vomiting and photophobia. Both patients were afebrile, vital signs were unremarkable, they had no focal neurological deficits and were otherwise healthy individuals. Both cases were unique in that intraventricular air predominated in the head CT scan (
figs 1 and 2). They were treated with oxygen and their condition resolved after 2–3 days in hospital.
Figure 1 CT scan of the head in case 1.
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Figure 2 CT | |||||||||
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