Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Sep 6, 2022; 10(25): 9127-9131
Published online Sep 6, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i25.9127
Varicella-zoster virus meningitis after spinal anesthesia: A case report
Ye-Won Lee, Byunghoon Yoo, Yun Hee Lim
Ye-Won Lee, Byunghoon Yoo, Yun Hee Lim, Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, College of Medicine, Inje University, Sanggye Paik Hospital, Seoul 01757, South Korea
Author contributions: Yoo B and Lim YH designed the case report; Lee YW performed the anesthesia and wrote the original paper; Lee YW and Yoo B reviewed the literature; All authors revised the manuscript and approved the final version.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained prior to treatment and for the publication of this report.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors report no relevant conflict of interest for this article.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Byunghoon Yoo, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, College of Medicine, Inje University, Sanggye Paik Hospital, 1342, Dongil-ro, Nowon-gu, Seoul 01757, South Korea. twowind.yoo@gmail.com
Received: April 14, 2022
Peer-review started: April 14, 2022
First decision: June 16, 2022
Revised: June 27, 2022
Accepted: July 22, 2022
Article in press: July 22, 2022
Published online: September 6, 2022
Processing time: 134 Days and 7.8 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Aseptic meningitis is a rare complication of spinal anesthesia. Herein, we present the case of a patient who developed aseptic meningitis due to reactivation of the varicella-zoster virus after spinal anesthesia for varicose vein stripping surgery. The patient was diagnosed with meningitis caused by varicella-zoster virus based on positive PCR test results and was treated with acyclovir for 5 d. The headache improved, and the patient was discharged without any sequelae. This case highlights the importance of differential diagnosis of post spinal anesthesia headache because viral meningitis due to virus reactivation may cause headache after regional anesthesia.