Management of symptomatic intrathecal catheter-associated inflammatory masses

Intrathecal catheter-associated inflammatory masses (CIMs) are a serious complication of implanted drug pumps. The goal of this study was to review our experience with CIMs, including the pathology of all resected CIMs, and identify objective data which may guide management.

We performed a retrospective review of 13 patients who developed symptomatic CIMs during continuous intrathecal opioid therapy for chronic pain. Eight patients presented with pain plus neurologic deficit and 5 patients presented with pain alone.

CIM resection via laminectomy and intradural exploration was ultimately performed in 8 patients, 3 of whom were initially treated with a non-resective surgical approach (catheter repositioning or pump removal) that failed. All 3 patients who experienced a failure with non-resective surgery had CIMs located in the thoracic spine with a maximum diameter≥13 mm and 2 of these patients had neurologic deficits on presentation.

Our experience, with the largest reported single-surgeon series of patients harboring CIMs, favors early resection, especially in patients with neurologic deficit. Resection may also be a prudent first-line strategy for patients with larger thoracic masses (≥13 mm) regardless of neurologic status. Neurologic deficits engendered by CIM usually improve after resection and the majority of patients in our series would have still elected to have an intrathecal pump for pain control knowing a CIM would have developed.