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Low pressure headache and cerebral fat embolism from a sacral fracture through a Tarlov cyst: a case report
BACKGROUND: Here we report the only formally documented case in the United Kingdom, to our knowledge, of a cerebral fat embolism secondary to non-iatrogenic trauma through a Tarlov cyst. This case demonstrates the pathology clearly giving an excellent opportunity to demonstrate a rarely seen patholo...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10559429/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37803426 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13256-023-04142-2 |
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author | Anandkumar, Delran Jakhura, Umayr Potter, Kathleen Bhatti, Ibrahim |
author_facet | Anandkumar, Delran Jakhura, Umayr Potter, Kathleen Bhatti, Ibrahim |
author_sort | Anandkumar, Delran |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Here we report the only formally documented case in the United Kingdom, to our knowledge, of a cerebral fat embolism secondary to non-iatrogenic trauma through a Tarlov cyst. This case demonstrates the pathology clearly giving an excellent opportunity to demonstrate a rarely seen pathology as well as illustrating the importance of the patient history to guiding further management. CASE PRESENTATION: A middle-aged patient was admitted on the acute medical take complaining of severe headache with photophobia, having just returned after a skiing holiday. Computerised tomography scan of the head showed fat within the anterior horn of both lateral ventricles, and within the subarachnoid space. Re-discussion with the patient and subsequent MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) of the spine identified the pathogenesis of her symptoms: a sacral insufficiency fracture through a Tarlov cyst, causing subarachnoid fat embolism and symptoms of a low-pressure headaches due to a dural leak. Patient was medically managed and discharged with planned follow-up. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic and resolution of the patient's symptoms, they declined further follow up imaging. CONCLUSIONS: The case demonstrates a rarely seen pathology as cause of a common presenting problem, headache. Emphasizing the importance of history taking and appropriate investigations in medical cases that do not conform to the usual diagnosis. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10559429 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-105594292023-10-08 Low pressure headache and cerebral fat embolism from a sacral fracture through a Tarlov cyst: a case report Anandkumar, Delran Jakhura, Umayr Potter, Kathleen Bhatti, Ibrahim J Med Case Rep Case Report BACKGROUND: Here we report the only formally documented case in the United Kingdom, to our knowledge, of a cerebral fat embolism secondary to non-iatrogenic trauma through a Tarlov cyst. This case demonstrates the pathology clearly giving an excellent opportunity to demonstrate a rarely seen pathology as well as illustrating the importance of the patient history to guiding further management. CASE PRESENTATION: A middle-aged patient was admitted on the acute medical take complaining of severe headache with photophobia, having just returned after a skiing holiday. Computerised tomography scan of the head showed fat within the anterior horn of both lateral ventricles, and within the subarachnoid space. Re-discussion with the patient and subsequent MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) of the spine identified the pathogenesis of her symptoms: a sacral insufficiency fracture through a Tarlov cyst, causing subarachnoid fat embolism and symptoms of a low-pressure headaches due to a dural leak. Patient was medically managed and discharged with planned follow-up. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic and resolution of the patient's symptoms, they declined further follow up imaging. CONCLUSIONS: The case demonstrates a rarely seen pathology as cause of a common presenting problem, headache. Emphasizing the importance of history taking and appropriate investigations in medical cases that do not conform to the usual diagnosis. BioMed Central 2023-10-07 /pmc/articles/PMC10559429/ /pubmed/37803426 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13256-023-04142-2 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. |
spellingShingle | Case Report Anandkumar, Delran Jakhura, Umayr Potter, Kathleen Bhatti, Ibrahim Low pressure headache and cerebral fat embolism from a sacral fracture through a Tarlov cyst: a case report |
title | Low pressure headache and cerebral fat embolism from a sacral fracture through a Tarlov cyst: a case report |
title_full | Low pressure headache and cerebral fat embolism from a sacral fracture through a Tarlov cyst: a case report |
title_fullStr | Low pressure headache and cerebral fat embolism from a sacral fracture through a Tarlov cyst: a case report |
title_full_unstemmed | Low pressure headache and cerebral fat embolism from a sacral fracture through a Tarlov cyst: a case report |
title_short | Low pressure headache and cerebral fat embolism from a sacral fracture through a Tarlov cyst: a case report |
title_sort | low pressure headache and cerebral fat embolism from a sacral fracture through a tarlov cyst: a case report |
topic | Case Report |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10559429/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37803426 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13256-023-04142-2 |
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