Acute Spinal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: Case Report Cured by Continuous Cerebrospinal Fluid Drainage by Lumbar Puncture

Background: Spinal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SSH) is a rare condition that can lead to severe neurological deficits. Clinicians should consider SSH when neurological deficits such as low back pain, pain hyperalgesia, paraplegia, and urinary and fecal incontinence are present. There is much debate as to whether SSH should be treated surgically or conservatively. There are few reports in the literature about this disease. In this paper, we report a case of SSH in terms of etiology, clinical manifestations, diagnosis and treatment. Methods: A case of SSH in our hospital was retrospectively analyzed in terms of etiology, pathogenesis, clinical manifestations, diagnosis and treatment. Results: The possible etiology of SSH in this case was due to rapid changes in intra-thoracic and intra-abdominal pressure due to prolonged bending, which caused tearing of the blood vessels in the subarachnoid space. The patient has returned to normal life with continuous lumbar puncture for cerebrospinal fluid drainage. Conclusion: We report a case of SSH with typical symptoms of back pain, sensory, motor and autonomic dysfunction. MRI is used as the method of choice to diagnose SSH, which is typically characterized by the lumbar sedimentation sign. Lumbar puncture for continuous drainage of cerebrospinal fluid is simple and less invasive, and may be considered by neurosurgeons as the treatment of choice for SSH, with further surgical treatment considered if results are poor.