Postdural puncture symptoms in a child.

Abstract

An 11-year-old boy suffered an inadvertent dural puncture during placement of an epidural catheter for postoperative analgesia. He developed symptoms of mild headache only, but severe and protracted orthostatic nausea and dizziness, which eventually resolved completely following epidural blood patch. His symptoms were atypical and could have been misinterpreted in the context of dural puncture for diagnosis, or for administration of intrathecal chemotherapy. The reported incidence of headache following dural puncture in children is low. It may be that the manifestations are different from those of adults and that the true incidence of symptoms related to leakage of cerebrospinal fluid is higher in children than currently recognised.