Persistent dural cerebrospinal fluid leak shown by retrograde radionuclide myelography: case report

Following inadvertent spinal anesthesia for delivery, a patient developed incapacitating post-lumbar puncture headache that persisted for 9 weeks. Scintigrams of the lumbar region, obtained after injection of 99mTC-human serum albumin into the cisterna magna, showed the cerebrospinal fluid leak. Blood patch repair was carried out, with immediate relief of all symptoms. Because of subsequent atypical headaches, a second cisternogram was done by the same technique. This study confirmed that there was no further dural leak, and other evidence indicated that the recurrent headache was related to functional problems.