An acute bleeding metastatic spinal tumor from HCC causes an acute onset of cauda equina syndrome

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an aggressive tumor that frequently occurs in the setting of chronic liver disease and cirrhosis. Herein, we describe a case where a patient presented with acute onset cauda equina syndrome due to an intradural and extramedullary metastatic tumor bleeding from hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The patient had lower back pain that had radiated to the bilateral lower legs for 3 weeks. Then, the patient had experienced an acute onset of bilateral lower leg weakness as well as bladder-urinary dysfunction 2 days before going to the ER. The patient received a laminectomy from the L1 to L4 vertebra, removing the intradural spinal tumor and hematoma. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported case of HCC metastasized to the cauda equina with tumor bleeding causing cauda equina syndrome.