Lumbar pannus presenting as cauda equina syndrome in a patient with longstanding rheumatoid arthritis

Relatively little attention has been paid to lumbar spine involvement in rh eumatoid arthritis (RA), and indeed it is generally considered to be an unc ommon and usually clinically minor manifestation of the disease. We describ e a case of acute right lower extremity weakness secondary to compression o f multiple lumbar nerve roots by a large interforaminal rheumatoid pannus, and review the literature on this complication and other lumbar spine invol vement in RA.