Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Mar 6, 2024; 12(7): 1356-1364
Published online Mar 6, 2024. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v12.i7.1356
Delayed neurological dysfunction following posterior laminectomy with lateral mass screw fixation: A case report and review of literature
Rui-Zhong Yan, Chao Chen, Chu-Ran Lin, Yan-Hui Wei, Zhi-Jian Guo, Ya-Kun Li, Quan Zhang, He-Yi Shen, Hao-Lin Sun
Rui-Zhong Yan, Chao Chen, Yan-Hui Wei, Zhi-Jian Guo, Ya-Kun Li, Quan Zhang, He-Yi Shen, Department of Orthopedics, Taiyuan Central Hospital, Taiyuan 030009, Shanxi Province, China
Chu-Ran Lin, Department of Orthopedics, Graduate School Shanxi University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Taiyuan 030024, Shanxi Province, China
Hao-Lin Sun, Department of Orthopedics, Peking University First Hospital, Beijing 100034, China
Author contributions: Yan RZ and Chen C reviewed the literature and contributed to manuscript drafting; Lin CR, Wei YH, and Guo ZJ analyzed and interpreted the imaging founds; Li YK, Zhang Q, and Shen HY contributed to the manuscript editing; Sun HL was the patient’s surgeon and was responsible for the revision of the manuscript; and all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Informed consent statement: Patients and their families have signed informed consent form.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts 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: Hao-Lin Sun, Department of Orthopedics, Peking University First Hospital, No. 8 Xishiku Street, Beijing 100034, China. sunhaolin@vip.163.com
Received: December 10, 2023
Peer-review started: December 10, 2023
First decision: December 18, 2023
Revised: December 27, 2023
Accepted: February 2, 2024
Article in press: February 2, 2024
Published online: March 6, 2024
Processing time: 81 Days and 16.6 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Symptomatic postoperative spinal epidural hematoma (PSEH) is a rare but fatal complication of spinal surgery. Here, we present the case of a patient who underwent cervical laminectomy for cervical spinal cord injury with tetraplegia complicated by PSEH. Hypoproteinemia and pleural effusion can aggravate spinal cord edema and worsen the neurological symptoms. Emergency hematoma evacuation is an effective method to relieve the pressure on the spinal cord. A literature review of similar cases was performed.