[Postpuncture headache]

The present study recorded prospectively subjective complaints after lumbar puncture as diagnostic procedure (n = 59), spinal - (n = 41) and peridural anaesthesia (n = 45) over a time interval of 28 days. Posture dependent headaches were never observed following peridural anaesthesis. This result disproves the hypothesis of a purely psychogenic origin of postpunctional headache. The frequency of occurrence of the postpunctional syndrome was 39% after lumbar puncture, but only 4.9% after spinal anaesthesis. The observed difference is due to the fact that needles with a smaller diameter are applied in spinal anaesthesia.