[Steroid-induced spinal epidural lipomatosis in pediatric patients]

Abstract

We describe three adolescent patients with chronic autoimmune disorders who developed back pain and, in two cases, spinal symptoms several months after initiating chronic treatment with glucocorticoids. In all cases, MRI showed extensive spinal epidural lipomatosis, a rare but classic untoward effect of chronic glucocorticoid therapy. Analysis of these three, as well as 11 other pediatric cases extracted from the international literature, revealed that spinal epidural lipomatosis manifests most commonly with back pain and within a mean of 1.3 years (range, 3 month-6.5 years) after initiation of therapy with corticosteroids. It frequently remits after reduction of the corticosteroid dose.