Lumbar puncture and dural sinus thrombosis--a causal or casual association?
BACKGROUND
A few cases of cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) were reported after a lumbar puncture (LP), suggesting a causal association. The purpose of our study was to document that LP might predispose to CVT by decreasing blood flow velocities (BFV) in veins or dural sinus.


METHODS
We performed a transcranial Doppler ultrasound study to register the mean BFV of the straight sinus (SS) before, during and after LP.


RESULTS
Thirteen patients were studied. LP induced a decrease of 47% of mean BFV in the SS. The mean decrease of BFV was significant immediately at the end (p = 0.003), 30 min after (p = 0.015) and more than 6 h after LP (p = 0.008).


CONCLUSIONS
LP induced a sustained decrease of mean BFV in the SS. The decrease of venous blood flow is a possible mechanism contributing to the occurrence of CVT.
Canhão
Patrícia
P
Neurology Department, Hospital de Santa Maria, PT-1649 Lisboa, Portugal. pcanhao@fm.ul.pt
Batista
Paulo
P
Falcão
Filipa
F
D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D002550:Cerebral Veins / Q000502:physiology; D004388:Dura Mater / Q000098:blood supply; D006801:Humans; D012851:Sinus Thrombosis, Intracranial / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D013129:Spinal Puncture / Q000009:adverse effects*; D017585:Ultrasonography, Doppler, Transcranial