Neurological deficit following spinal anaesthesia: MRI and CT evidence of spinal cord gas embolism.

A 62-year-old diabetic woman developed permanent neurological deficits in the legs following spinal anaesthesia. MRI showed oedema in the spinal cord and a small intramedullary focus of signal void at the T10 level, with negative density at CT. Intramedullary gas bubbles have not been reported previously among the possible neurological complications of spinal anaesthesia; a combined ischaemic/embolic mechanism is hypothesised.