« How to do a Lumbar Puncture: instructions from a practising neurologist
Lumbar Puncture fact #2 »

10 steps to a successful Lumbar Puncture

  1. A calm environment
  2. A trained nurse to assist
  3. Careful explanation to patient of what to expect
  4. Spend time on positioning the patient properly
  5. Make sure you achieve cutaneous anaesthesia
  6. Remember the 6 layers from skin to CSF
  7. Loosen manometer tap and connect to manometer guage before you insert needle
  8. Collect adequate specimens (2mls per bottle - 8mls is only 1.6% of total daily CSF production)
  9. Be confident - if your position and anatomical knowledeg are correct you will succeed
  10. Don’t rush your patient afterwards, let them take their own time to get ready to leave

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 8th, 2008 at 1:02 am and is filed under Lumbar Puncture Facts, Technique. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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