Extract
Apersistent dural opening is one of the most frequent complications of
spinal surgery. The most common cause is an inadvertent durotomy, the
prevalence of which has varied notably in different studies. Previous reviews
revealed that seventeen of 450 and eighty-eight of 641 patients sustained an
incidental durotomy during lumbar spine
surgery1,2.
In the thoracic spine, dural defects are most commonly traumatic and less
frequently iatrogenic. Previous accounts of thoracic dural defects have
described cerebrospinal fluidpleural space fistulae leading to pleural
effusion and, more rarely, to
pneumocephalus3,4.