Radicular pain can be a symptom of elevated intracranial pressure.
We report two patients with leptomeningeal metastatic disease, one from breast cancer and the other from a spinal cord glioma, who developed episodic elevated intracranial pressure (ICP), each episode accompanied by the gradual onset of severe spine and radicular pain. Symptoms of pain promptly and completely resolved with opening of the on-off valve of each patient's ventriculoperitoneal shunt. It is theorized that the patients' radicular pain was caused by nerve root ischemia secondary to elevated ICP.
Groves
M D
MD
Department of Neuro-Oncology, University of Texas, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston 77030, USA.
McCutcheon
I E
IE
Ginsberg
L E
LE
Kyritsis
A P
AP
D000328:Adult; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000556:secondary; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007427:Intracranial Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D007511:Ischemia / Q000503:physiopathology; D008577:Meningeal Neoplasms / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000556:secondary; D008875:Middle Aged; D010146:Pain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011843:Radiculopathy / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D013126:Spinal Nerve Roots / Q000503:physiopathology