Spinal artery syndrome masked by postoperative epidural analgesia.

Purpose: We report a case of a patient who developed a postoperative anterior spinal artery syndrome that was masked by the use of epidural analgesia. We wish to alert other anaesthetists that the use of epidural anaesthesia in this setting may mask the symptoms and delay the diagnosis of this rare complication.

Clinical Features: The patient was a 22-yr-old obese man with metastatic testicular carcinoma who underwent a left-sided thoracoabdominal retroperitoneal tumour resection.