Remote cerebellar haemorrhage after lumbar spine surgery: case report

Remote cerebellar haemorrhage (RCH) is a well-described complication of supratentorial surgical procedures with an incidence ranging between 0.2 and 4.9 %, but is a rare complication of spinal surgery. We report a case of RCH in a 65-year-old woman who showed sudden mental deterioration 48 h after lumbar spinal surgery, which was complicated by incidental dural tearing with minimal CSF loss. Brain CT scan revealed hypodense areas compatible with acute infarction involving mostly the left cerebellar hemisphere. No cerebral bleeding was observed. MRI was also performed revealing small cerebellar areas of acute infarction mainly relating the vermis and the left postero-inferior cerebellar hemisphere with haemorrhagic transformation and mass effect in the posterior fossa producing acute hydrocephalus. Haematoma removal was initially attempted by means of a suboccipital craniotomy. An external ventricular derivation was placed in a second procedure 24 h later due to the persistence of ventricular dilatation. At discharge the patient was only showing a slight dysmetria with the fine motor skills of hands and fingers. All cases of RCH after spinal surgery reported in the literature are invariably associated to iatrogenic dural tearing; although CSF loss seems to play the key role in the pathogenesis of this rare complication, the exact pathophysiology of this condition still remains undetermined.