Carcinomatosis meningitis is a rare but deadly complication of medulloblastoma. Surgical and systemic treatment options are often limited in advanced stages of the cancer. Meningeal irritation from raised intracranial pressure causes leptomeningeal pain that may respond poorly to opioids and common adjuvant analgesics. We present the case of a terminally ill patient with severe leptomeningeal pain that responded to a trial of ketamine as an adjunct to opioids.
Keywords: carcinomatosis meningitis; ketamine; leptomeningeal pain.