Spinal Epidural Abscess During a Spinal Cord Stimulation Trial in Complete Spinal Cord Injury: A Case Report.

Authors

Ryota Watanabe, Shogo Tsujikawa, Takashi Mori

Published in

A&A practice. Volume 20. Issue 8. Pages e02262. Aug 01, 2026. Epub Aug 07, 2026.

Abstract

Chronic pain after spinal cord injury (SCI) is often refractory to medication, and spinal cord stimulation (SCS) may provide relief. We report a 48-year-old man with complete thoracic SCI who underwent an SCS trial for severe bilateral lower-extremity-pain. Although pain improved, low-grade fever, elevated inflammatory markers, and purulent drainage developed on day 7. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a spinal epidural abscess (SEA). SCS leads were removed, and cultures grew methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. As the abscess was small without significant compression, conservative treatment with vancomycin was successful. This case highlights the diagnostic difficulty of SEA in complete SCI.

PMID:
42593419
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 13 Aug 2026.

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