Epidural Catheter in a Child with Metastatic Rhabdomyosarcoma

Pain and symptom management is a cornerstone of palliative and hospice medicine. The aim of this article is to educate clinicians about the uncommon causes of bleeding from an epidural catheter for hospice pain management. A case of a 12-year-old female with progressive metastatic rhabdomyosarcoma-left forearm primary who had exhausted all treatment options is reported. She had a very significant cancer-related pain, which was not amenable to hospice management at home. A tunneled epidural catheter was placed so that she could receive better pain management at home as her life expectancy was very short. The patient had massive bleeding coming from the tunnel site developing big clots around dressings on the third day after the catheter placement. All methods for stopping the bleeding were employed but it stopped only after the epidural catheter was removed. In conclusion, the development of pain management strategy using multidisciplinary inputs with appropriate, timely use of interventional pain management techniques provides satisfactory pain relief for these patients and reduces distress in patients and relatives during this difficult period. Multiple approaches exist for pain management; however, systemic medications sometimes cause additional side effects (nausea, vomiting, constipation, drowsiness, respiratory depression). Unfortunately, some interventional procedures may also have side effects (bleeding, infection, ineffectiveness).