Central nervous side effects after lumbar puncture. A review of the possible pathogenesis of the syndrome of postdural puncture headache and associated symptoms.

The mechanism of central nervous side effects of lumbar puncture is reviewed on the basis of the literature. The most frequent adverse effect of lumbar puncture remains the postdural puncture headache; dysfunction of certain cranial nerves occurs less frequently. Laboratory studies have shown that the production rate of CSF. Several reports suggest that lumbar CSF leakage may affect the intracranial CSF volume. There are no reports of measurement of the intracranial pressure in patients with postdural puncture headache, but there are several indications of a reduced CSF pressure that may explain postdural puncture headache and vestibulocochlear dysfunction following lumbar puncture. Recent audiometric studies suggest that hearing loss may be a sensitive indicator of CSF leakage, and larger series indicate that the needle size and the shape of the needle tip are important determinants of the incidence of central nervous side effects. Epidural blood patch may give immediate relief of postdural puncture headache and cranial nerve dysfunction after lumbar puncture, but the reason for the rapid and impressive effect of epidural blood patch has not been fully elucidated.