Abstract
We present a case of a 42-year-old male, an old case of deep vein thrombosis on warfarin and other drugs like quetiapine, aspirin, diclofenac sodium, fenofibrate, atorvastatin, propanolol and citalopram for concurrent illnesses, who presented with widespread mucocutaneous bleeding and epidural spinal hematoma. The epidural bleed presented clinically as a nontraumatic, rapidly improving myeloradiculopathy. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the spine revealed an epidural hematoma at D12-L1 level. The case was managed conservatively due lack of neurosurgical facilities. The patient gained full neurological recovery on conservative management alone. This case highlights the problem of drug interaction on warfarin therapy and also an unusual spontaneous recovery of spinal hematoma. Our case was anticoagulated in the recommended therapeutic INR range of 2.2 to 2.4. Most of the similar cases reported in literature were also anticoagulated in the therapeutic range. Thus intraspinal hemorrhage is a rare but dangerous complication of anticoagulant therapy. It must be suspected in any patient on anticoagulant agents who complains of local or referred spinal pain associated with neurological deficits. Drug interactions with warfarin are common. High suspicion and immediate intervention are essential to prevent complications from intraspinal hemorrhage.
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Association for Helping Neurosurgical Sick People. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Derivative-Non Commercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit.
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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives License, which permits unrestricted reproduction and distribution, for non-commercial purposes only; and use and reproduction, but not distribution, of adapted material for non-commercial purposes only, provided the original work is properly cited.
