DELAYED PARAPLEGIA FOLLOWING SPINAL-ANESTHESIA - SPINAL SUBDURAL-HEMATOMA FOLLOWING DURAL PUNCTURE WITH A 25 G PENCIL POINT NEEDLE AT T-12-L(1) IN A PATIENT TAKING ASPIRIN

We report an extremely rare complication of regional anaesthesia, a sp inal subdural haematoma, which resulted in permanent neurological dama ge occurring 8 days after dural puncture at T-12-L(1) Although spinal subdural haematoma following spinal anaesthesia and lumbar puncture ha s been described before, this is the first report of this complication occurring after dural puncture using a 25 G atraumatic pencil point ( Whitacre) needle. Contributory factors might have been the perioperati ve intermittent low dose aspirin therapy and the fact that spinal anae sthesia was performed at the T-12-L(1) level.