What Researchers Did
This case report describes a patient who developed motor weakness due to air in her spinal canal after receiving an epidural for a caesarean section.
What They Found
A 32-year-old female experienced paraparesis two hours after an epidural infusion began, which was diagnosed as epidural pneumorrhachis via CT scan. She received emergent hyperbaric oxygen treatment using the US Navy Treatment Table 5 protocol. Following just one session of HBOT, the patient made a complete recovery from her motor blockade.
Canadian Relevance
This study was not conducted by Canadian authors or in Canada. While pneumorrhachis is not a specifically listed Health Canada-recognised indication, hyperbaric oxygen therapy is recognised for other gas-associated conditions like decompression sickness and arterial gas embolism, which also involve gas in tissues causing neurological issues.
Study Limitations
As a single case report, the findings from this study cannot be generalized to a larger patient population or other clinical scenarios.