Spinal cord injuries frequently determine central pain symptoms that are difficult to control. The authors present the case of a 67-year-old suffering from a pleural mesothelioma. During the disease course, he developed a paraplegia syndrome from mesothelioma compression of the spinal cord at T4-T5 level. Following spinal decompression surgery, the patient presented an intense at-level, superficial neuropathic pain syndrome with allodynia and hyperalgesia. After systemic pharmacological therapies had failed, treatment with lidocaine 5% plaster was initiated. The superficial neuropathic symptoms almost completely disappeared within a few days. The lidocaine topical treatment was continued for months with durable analgesic effect.
Keywords: lidocaine medicated plaster; mesothelioma; neuropathic pain; spinal cord injury.