Post-Traumatic Haemorrhagic Tarlov’s Cyst: a Case Report and Review of Literature

Tarlov’s cysts (TC) are benign dilations of the spinal nerve root sheaths that can arise all along the spine, more frequently at sacral level. In the majority of cases, TC are incidental and asymptomatic, but they can cause a large variety of symptoms if there is an increase in their size or if rupture or intracystic haemorrhage occurs. We present the case of a 55-year-old woman with sciatica-like pain ensuing from rupture and intracystic bleeding of a Tarlov’s cyst after a lumbo-sacral trauma due to a syncope. Tarlov’s cysts can cause a wide variety of symptoms. In our case, the rupture and intracystic haemorrhage of the Tarlov’s cyst caused a sciatica-like pain. We were able to ascertain the presence of an intracystic haemorrhage thanks to a previous MR in which the cyst had CSF-like content.