Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Case Reports
. 2016 Jun;32(Suppl 1):59-61.
doi: 10.1007/s12288-016-0666-y. Epub 2016 Mar 12.

Clinical Presentation of Inadvertent Intrathecal Vincristine Masquerading Guillain-Barre Syndrome

Agni Sekhar Saha  1 , Md Fekarul Islam  2 , Sukanta Bhattacharya  2 , Prabhas Prasun Giri  2
Affiliations
Case Reports

Clinical Presentation of Inadvertent Intrathecal Vincristine Masquerading Guillain-Barre Syndrome

Agni Sekhar Saha et al. Indian J Hematol Blood Transfus. 2016 Jun.

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.

Keywords: ALL; GB syndrome; Intrathecal vincristine.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
MRI 2 months after the incidence showing diffuse brain atrophy with some bilateral white matter signal changes
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Lagman JL, Tigue CC, Trifilio SM, Belknap S, Buffie CG, Bennett CL. Inadvertent intrathecal administration of vincristine. Community Oncol. 2007;4:45–46. doi: 10.1016/S1548-5315(11)70022-5. - DOI
    1. Gomber S, Dewan P, Chhonker D. Vincristine induced neurotoxicity in cancer patients. Indian J Pediatr. 2010;77(1):97–100. doi: 10.1007/s12098-009-0254-3. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Alcaraz A, Rey C, Concha A, Medina A. Intrathecal vincristine: fatal myeloencephalopathy despite cerebrospinal fluid perfusion. J Toxicol Clin Toxicol. 2002;40:557–561. doi: 10.1081/CLT-120014647. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Qweider M, Gilsbach JM, Rohde V. Inadvertent intrathecal vincristine administration: a neurosurgical emergency. Case report. J Neurosurg Spine. 2007;6(3):280–283. doi: 10.3171/spi.2007.6.3.280. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Schulmeister Lisa. Preventing vincristine administration errors: does evidence support minibag infusions? Clin J Oncol Nurs. 2006;10(2):271–273. doi: 10.1188/06.CJON.271-273. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources