2024 Volume 9 Article ID: 20240027
Background : COVID-19 can cause respiratory symptoms, as well as various complications and sequelae. This report describes a patient with worsening neurological symptoms caused by a spinal cavernous hemangioma after infection with COVID-19. Cavernous hemangioma usually occurs in the upper part of the brain (70%–90%) and rarely occurs in the spinal cord (5%–7%). Approximately 65% of cases of intramedullary spinal cavernous hemangioma present with neurological symptoms, and more than half of these cases show a slow worsening of symptoms. This is a rare case of intramedullary spinal cavernous hemangioma with cysto-rectal involvement in which neurological symptoms rapidly worsened following COVID-19 infection.
Case : A woman in her 30s was admitted to the hospital because of the sudden onset of muscle weakness in both lower limbs and cysto-rectal disturbances after COVID-19 infection. She was diagnosed with a hemorrhage from a spinal cord tumor and underwent emergency resection. The pathological diagnosis was a spinal cavernous hemangioma. At first, she had a spinal cord injury (third thoracic vertebrae; American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale, C; Frankel classification, B; with cysto-rectal impairment), but 2 months later, she started walking with knee–ankle–foot orthoses and parallel bars. After 3 months, she could move independently around the ward using a wheelchair. Upon discharge, the patient could walk with ankle–foot orthoses and Lofstrand crutches.
Discussion : COVID-19 is associated with various extrapulmonary manifestations and may increase the risk of hemorrhage in cases of intramedullary spinal cavernous hemangioma.
