title: Reducing post-lumbar puncture headaches with small bore atraumatic needles.
abstract: Lumbar puncture for testing of Alzheimer's disease pathophysiology for diagnostic confirmation is likely to become more common in the coming years. Minimizing adverse effects from this testing will be essential for clinical practice. Small bore, atraumatic needles reduce the occurrence of post-lumbar puncture headache (PLPH). Our goal was to extend this recommendation specifically to a well-characterized aging population. We assessed PLPH in the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative cohort and found that PLPH occurrence was reduced only when using a 24 gauge atraumatic needle. We recommend that lumbar punctures for clinical and research purposes in Alzheimer's disease be conducted with 24 gauge atraumatic needles.
authors.affiliation: University of Kansas Alzheimer's Disease Center, 4350 Shawnee Mission Parkway, MS 6002 Fairway, KS 66205, USA.
authors.forename: Eric D
authors.initials: ED
authors.lastname: Vidoni
authors.affiliation: University of Kansas Alzheimer's Disease Center, 4350 Shawnee Mission Parkway, MS 6002 Fairway, KS 66205, USA.
authors.forename: Jill K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Morris
authors.affiliation: University of Kansas School of Medicine, Kansas City, KS, USA.
authors.forename: Kayla
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Raider
authors.affiliation: University of Kansas Alzheimer's Disease Center, 4350 Shawnee Mission Parkway, MS 6002 Fairway, KS 66205, USA. Electronic address: jburns2@kumc.edu.
authors.forename: Jeffrey M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Burns
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D009339:Needles; D051299:Post-Dural Puncture Headache / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D013129:Spinal Puncture / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000295:instrumentation*
keywords: Alzheimer’s; Biomarkers; Dementia