• Corina M Duja, Christophe Berna, Stéphane Kremer, Claude Géronimus, Jacques Kopferschmitt, and Pascal Bilbault.
• Division of Emergency and Intensive Care, Faculty of Medicine, Hôpital de Hautepierre, Strasbourg, France.
• BMC Emerg Med. 2010 Jan 1;10:18.

BackgroundAcute low back pain is a very common symptom and reason for many medical consultations. In some unusual circumstances it could be linked to a rare aetiology.Case PresentationWe report a 70-year-old man with an 8-month history of left posterior thigh and leg pain who had sudden confusion after a fall from standing. It was due to cerebral fat embolism suspected by computed tomography scan, later confirmed by brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). A spinal MRI scan was then performed and revealed a sacral fracture which drained into an unknown perineurial cyst (Tarlov cyst). Under medical observation the patient fully recovered within three weeks.ConclusionsSacral perineurial cysts are rare, however they remain a potential cause of lumbosacral radiculopathy.

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