• Gökhan Bozkurt, Barbaros Cil, Atilla Akbay, Cezmi Cağri Türk, and Selçuk Palaoğlu.
• Institute of Neurological Sciences and Psychiatry, Department of Neurosurgery and Radiology, Hacettepe University, School of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey. gbozkurt@hacettepe.edu.tr
• Spine. 2006 May 20;31(12):E383-6.

Study DesignThe present report describes treatment of enlarged lumbar epidural veins in a patient with Budd-Chiari syndrome presenting with intractable radicular and low back pain.ObjectiveTo present a rare cause of radicular pain. To offer a case successfully to be treated with stenting of inferior vena cava stenosis.Summary Of Background DataEpidural venous engorgements due to inferior vena cava thrombosis have been described previously in the literature. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first case of inferior vena cava stenosis to be treated with stenting.MethodsAn 27-year-old woman presented with intractable radicular and low back pain refractory to medical treatment. She was diagnosed with Budd-Chiari syndrome for 23 years. A venography revealed severe stenosis at the hepatic portion of the inferior vena cava causing symptomatic lumbar epidural venous engorgements.ResultsInferior vena cava stenosis was dilatated with endovascular stenting. Her symptoms were completely resolved after this procedure.ConclusionsInferior vena cava stenosis related to hypertrophied caudate lobe producing lumbar epidural venous engorgements should be considered as one of the causes of radicular and low back pain. We could obtain a favorable clinical outcome by handling the primary cause of the venous engorgement.

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