Spine surgery under general anaesthesia complicated by Wernicke’s encephalopathy in previously asymptomatic patient.

Abstract

Wernicke’s encephalopathy (WE) is a very rare complication of surgical intervention, especially among patients with no liver dysfunction and no history of alcohol abuse. In a surgical setting, Wernicke’s syndrome was mostly associated with abdominal surgery (bariatric, e.g. gastric bypass, splenectomy) but there are no papers in the literature dealing with such a complication among spine patients.