Introduction: Spinal arachnoid cysts are an infrequently reported cause of abdominal pain in children. In this report, we describe the unusual case of an extradural arachnoid cyst presenting as recurrent abdominal pain in a pediatric patient without any signs of cord or nerve root compression.
Case report: A 14-year-old girl with recurrent abdominal pain as the only symptom of a spinal extradural arachnoid cyst is reported. The patient was incidentally diagnosed with an intraspinal mass on abdominal computed tomography (CT) during the course of investigating her abdominal pain. Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging confirmed the diagnosis of a T11-L2 extradural arachnoid cyst. After resection of the T11-L2 arachnoid cyst, the patient's abdominal pain resolved. To our knowledge, this is the first report describing abdominal pain as the sole presenting feature of a spinal arachnoid cyst in the pediatric population.
Conclusion: This case illustrates that abdominal pain may be the first and only presentation of spinal arachnoid cysts in children. Spinal pathology should be considered in the differential diagnosis of unexplained abdominal pain, even when there are no other symptoms of spinal disease.