“We want multiple dimensions across her life to improve so she can return to function and do the things a young woman wants to do instead of seeing doctors all the time,” said Carroll, who is also an assistant professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine at the School of Medicine.Ĭarroll believes that CSF leaks may be more common than anyone thought, and often misdiagnosed. In the procedure, the patient’s own blood is injected into the meninges, creating a seal over the tear in the covering.Īfter her first blood patch, Hale improved substantially, and Carroll was confident they were on the right path. To treat the CSF leak, Carroll performed an epidural blood patch. CSF leaks can occur spontaneously, but people with Marfan and Ehlers-Danlos syndromes, both connective tissue disorders, are at the highest risk.
#Cerebrospinal fluid leak causes Patch#
“It was the first time my headache has ever gone away, and it was a huge ‘Aha!’ moment for me.” A patch made from bloodĪ CSF leak occurs when the meninges - a covering that protects the brain and spinal cord and holds the cerebral fluid in place - forms a tear, allowing the fluid to escape. “I don’t think I’ll ever forget doing the first diagnostic test where he just had me lie flat,” recalled Hale. He ran scans and imaging, and diagnosed a CSF leak. When Nguyen contacted Carroll about Hale, he immediately took an interest in her case. Carroll had shared information with her about cerebrospinal fluid leaks: He said the leaks were characterized by chronic, intractable nausea in addition to ringing in the ears, vomiting and headaches. Nguyen had recently heard from Ian Carroll, MD, a headache and orofacial pain specialist at Stanford. Then, in November 2017, when Hale was at Stanford Hospital, she met Linda Nguyen, MD, a clinical associate professor of gastroenterology and hepatology at the Stanford School of Medicine who was assessing Hale’s gastrointestinal issues. She had bounced from physician to physician and hospital to hospital, without much relief. Her condition prevented her from participating in sports and social events - sometimes she couldn’t even go out to eat with friends. The headaches, the nausea, the dehydration, the blood draws leaving scars on her arm - this wasn’t what most other kids her age were going through.īy the time she was 24, Hale was on her fourth diagnosis and had been on headache medication for years. Rachel Hale knew her adolescence was unusual.
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