Subarachnoid hemorrhage following chymopapain chemonucleolysis

Subarachnoid hemorrhage is a frequent finding in patients who have incurred neurological complications following chymopapain chemonucleolysis, but the basis for this occurrence remains controversial. The authors report the clinical and postmortem findings in a 42-year-old man who died 5 days after chemonucleolysis at the L4-5 and L5-S1 disc spaces. The predominant histological abnormality was a severe inflammatory arteritis of a medium-sized artery at the upper cervical level with disruption of the vessel wall. The potential causative role of chymopapain in this situation and the correlation of a vascular basis for many of the complications found after inadvertent intrathecal chymopapain injector are discussed.