Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Clinical Presentation of Inadvertent Intrathecal Vincristine Masquerading Guillain–Barre Syndrome

  • Case Report
  • Published:
Indian Journal of Hematology and Blood Transfusion Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Vincristine, a potent chemotherapeutic agent, is highly neurotoxic. If given intrathecally by accident it is almost always fatal. We are reporting a 6 year old girl with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in complete remission, who was given inadvertent intrathecal Vincristine instead of Methotrexate. She developed gradually progressive quadriplegia and respiratory paralysis requiring prolonged mechanical ventilation, initially mimicking Guillain–Barre Syndrome, both clinically and electro-physiologically. She also developed progressive encephalopathy. The clinical deterioration subsequently plateaued without any significant improvement and after more than 5 months, she finally expired.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

References

  1. Lagman JL, Tigue CC, Trifilio SM, Belknap S, Buffie CG, Bennett CL (2007) Inadvertent intrathecal administration of vincristine. Community Oncol 4:45–46

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Gomber S, Dewan P, Chhonker D (2010) Vincristine induced neurotoxicity in cancer patients. Indian J Pediatr 77(1):97–100

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Alcaraz A, Rey C, Concha A, Medina A (2002) Intrathecal vincristine: fatal myeloencephalopathy despite cerebrospinal fluid perfusion. J Toxicol Clin Toxicol 40:557–561

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Qweider M, Gilsbach JM, Rohde V (2007) Inadvertent intrathecal vincristine administration: a neurosurgical emergency. Case report. J Neurosurg Spine 6(3):280–283

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Schulmeister Lisa (2006) Preventing vincristine administration errors: does evidence support minibag infusions? Clin J Oncol Nurs 10(2):271–273

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fortis Hospital, 30/H Mahendra Roy Lane, Kolkata, West Bengal, 700046, India

    Agni Sekhar Saha

  2. Institute of Child Health, Kolkata, India

    Md. Fekarul Islam, Sukanta Bhattacharya & Prabhas Prasun Giri

Authors
  1. Agni Sekhar Saha
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Md. Fekarul Islam
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Sukanta Bhattacharya
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Prabhas Prasun Giri
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Agni Sekhar Saha.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

Agni Sekhar Saha, Md. Fekarul Islam, Sukanta Bhattacharya, Prabhas Prasun Giri has no conflict of interest to declare.

Ethical Approval

This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from the family of the individual patient included in the study.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Saha, A.S., Islam, M.F., Bhattacharya, S. et al. Clinical Presentation of Inadvertent Intrathecal Vincristine Masquerading Guillain–Barre Syndrome. Indian J Hematol Blood Transfus 32 (Suppl 1), 59–61 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12288-016-0666-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12288-016-0666-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation