title: Spontaneous intracranial hypotension syndrome treated with a double epidural blood patch.
abstract: Spontaneous intracranial hypotension (SIH) is considered to be a very rare disease. It is characterised by an orthostatic headache in the absence of a past history of a trauma or a dural puncture. SIH is caused by a spontaneous spinal cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leakage demonstrated by neuroradiological studies in most of the patients. Conservative treatment usually includes bed rest, hydration and administration of caffeine or steroids. However, when the patient is refractory to the conservative treatment, an epidural blood patch (EBP) is performed. We report a 34-year-old woman with SIH and no neuroradiologically demonstrable clear point of CSF leakage, who was treated with a double EBP at two different levels (lumbar and thoracic) in the same procedure. The patient was successfully managed, and she was still asymptomatic at the 18 months follow-up. After review of literature, we observed that execution of a double EBP at the same time is not a common procedure for treatment of SIH. We consider that simultaneous use of two EBP could be useful as a novel treatment in those cases of SIH without demonstration of CSF leakage.
authors: Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care, Hospital Universitario del Sureste, Madrid, Spain. jmaria.belenab@salud.madrid.org
authors: J M
authors: JM
authors: Beleña
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Nuñez
authors: J
authors: J
authors: Yuste
authors: J F
authors: JF
authors: Plaza-Nieto
authors: F J
authors: FJ
authors: Jiménez-Jiménez
authors: S
authors: S
authors: Serrano
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000767:Anesthesia, Epidural; D017217:Blood Patch, Epidural / Q000379:methods*; D065634:Cerebrospinal Fluid Leak; D002559:Cerebrospinal Fluid Rhinorrhea; D004824:Epidural Space / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006261:Headache / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D019585:Intracranial Hypotension / Q000628:therapy*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging