High output heart failure due to an iatrogenic arterio-venous fistula after lumbar disc surgery

Summary

Vascular injury is a rare but not uncommon complication of spinal surgery and associated with dramatic consequences. Congestive heart failure secondary to a hyperkinetic circulation can occur in systemic diseases and in arterio-venous fistulae.

A 57-year-old man was admitted to hospital complaining of dyspnoea and oedema of the left leg. Eight days previously he had undergone a discectomy at L4–L5. On auscultation a systolic-diastolic murmur was noted over the entire abdomen. An echocardiogram demonstrated an enlarged right atrium, severe mitral and tricuspid regurgitation and increased pulmonary artery pressure. An abdominal CT demonstrated irregular dilatation of the left common iliac vein and through a fistula and simultaneous opacification of the right common iliac artery; subsequently, this was also confirmed by angiography.

The patient underwent an emergency endovascular stent-graft of the right common iliac artery with normalization of the venous return pressure and quick resolution of the heart failure.

It is important for the physician involved in clinical work to keep in mind all the possible post-surgical complications that can occur in symptomatic patients who have recently undergone an intervention.