Does Lumbar Puncture ever make the news?
I’m not sure I can ever recall a lumbar puncture being mentioned in the news. This is extraordinary as there are probably several million lumbar puncture procedures performed each year. In addition about 1% of women aged 40 to 50 years will have a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis and may have had a lumbar puncture. Similarly meningitis is still a worldwide health concern and a lumbar puncture is required for the diagnosis of meningitis. In the USA alone an estimated 400,000 lumbar puncture tests are done every year. My own hospital performs about 1 lumbar puncture per day for diagnostic purposes, and the numbers of lumbar punctures performed each day for spinal anesthesia is simply huge!
It seems strange that a lumbar puncture is not more noteworthy.
The humble lumbar puncture is in the background, and the honourable mention goes to the cerebrospinal fluid or neurological diagnosis!
I’ve searched medicalnewstoday.com for news items which mention lumbar puncture. I managed to find about 19 out of 102,000 (that’s only 0.018%) of all their recorded news items! They included a case of rabies, the articles about the MMR vaccination in autism investigation, research into stem cells and an article on brain cancer. There was one mention of my favourite topic - investigation of acute headache.
Here’s the medicalnewstoday.com news feed, which complies with their terms and conditions….
Ulcerative Colitis/Stercoralis Infection
Although exacerbation of UC usually poses little diagnostic dilemma, physicians should remain cognizant to the possibility of an alternative cause for patient symptoms. An article published in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses thi...
Children With Hay Fever More Likely To Experience Headaches, Facial Pain
Children who suffer from bouts of allergic rhinitis (hay fever) are also more likely to suffer from headaches, facial pain, and ear aches than children without these allergies, says new research presented at the 2008 American Academy of Otolaryngo...
Newsfeed display by CaRP