J Korean Pain Soc.  2000 Jun;13(1):79-83.

Epidural Blood Patch to Treat Spontaneous Intracranial Hypotension

• Lee C
• Song JG
• Park JH
• Shin JW
• Choi Y
• Yun CS

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Spontaneous intracranial hypotension is a syndrome characterized by postural headache without trauma, spinal anesthesia or other medical history, The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of epidural blood patch in spontaneous intracranial hypotension.
METHODS
The spontaneous intracranial hypotension patients treated with epidural blood patch were analyzed on the symptoms, radiologic images and methods of epidural blood patch retrospectively by the medical records.
RESULTS
Patients had postural headache (15 patients) including nausea/vomiting (10 patients), tinnitus (2 patients), neck stiffness (13 patients), vertigo (3 patients) and occular pain (1 patient). Brain CT and MRI showed diffuse enhancement of the pachymeninges (9 patients) and radionuclide cistemography demonstrated direct evidence of leakage (11 patients). With epidural blood patch, the symptoms were promptly relieved in 11 patients.
CONCLUSIONS
We concluded that epidural blood patch is a good treatment of method in spontaneous intracranial hypotension patients.

Keyword

Anesthetic technique, epidural blood patch; Headache, spontaneous intracranial hypotension

MeSH Terms

Anesthesia, Spinal
Blood Patch, Epidural*
Brain
Headache
Humans
Intracranial Hypotension*
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Medical Records
Neck
Retrospective Studies
Tinnitus
Vertigo