Venous stenting is a common treatment for chronic peripheral venous disease. The most frequent complications caused by this technique are stent misplacement and intra-cardiac or intra-vascular stent migration. In this publication, we will describe the first case of an intra-spinal stent misplacement, leading to lumbar nerve root compression.
Our patient is a 20-year-old woman with a bilateral pulmonary embolism caused by a right common iliac vein thrombosis and a severe compression of the left common iliac vein by the right common iliac artery (May-Thurner or Cockett syndrome). She underwent an endovascular stenting of the left iliac vein. A few days later, she reported some pain in the right L5 radicular, showed signs of hypoesthesia of the left leg and of paresis of the left extensor hallucis longus muscle. A lumbar computed tomography scan showed a stent misplacement into the spinal canal through the left L5 foramen with nerve root compression. She underwent a surgical removal of the stent through a unilateral L5-S1 laminarthrectomy. The postoperative follow-up showed a complete clinical recovery and a control lumbar CT-scan confirmed the L5 nerve roots decompression.
The intra-spinal misplacement of a venous stent is a rare complication which may cause nerve root injury. It requires a prompt treatment. Surgically removing the stent by a posterior approach seems to be a simple and safe therapeutic option.

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