Kaohsiung J Med Sci. 1997 May; 13(5): 328-31.

Bacterial meningitis and lumbar epidural hematoma due to lumbar acupunctures: a case report.

Chen CY, Liu GC, Sheu RS, Huang CL.

Department of Radiology, Kaohsiung Medical College, Taiwan, Republic of China.

A 48-year-old female expressed signs of meningeal irritation after having received several lumbar acupunctures within one week for back pain. Bacterial meningitis was diagnosed from cerebrospinal fluid examinations. Magnetic resonance image (MRI) of spine at admission demonstrated a fusiform lesion with characters of subacute hematoma in the epidural space of the first and second lumbar level. She received antibiotics treatment only and recovered from her central nervous system infection completely. The epidural lesion disappeared spontaneously in the MRI follow up three weeks later. We report the diagnosis and follow-up of epidural hematoma of the lumbar spine by MRI which aided the medical physician to treat meningitis attentively.