Cerebral Venous Sinus Thrombosis After Cervical Spine Epidural Injection

Abstract

Headache is a common presenting complaint to the emergency department. Benign causes must be differentiated from life threatening causes. Cerebral venous thrombosis is a rare disease that has significant morbidity. This is a case report of a 36-year-old female who presented to multiple emergency departments within the span of 1 week after having a cervical spine epidural injection for her chronic neck pain. She was told repeatedly by multiple emergency departments that she had a spinal headache, but was ultimately diagnosed with cerebral venous sinus thrombosis. This case demonstrates a rare disease presenting with a common complaint and highlights the importance of considering alternative diagnoses and maintaining a broad differential diagnosis for headaches, especially in the face of an obvious cause.




J Med Cases. 2013;4(3):170-172
doi: https://doi.org/10.4021/jmc924w