Last Updated on 4 months by News Admin
(NY POST) – This case study redefines picking someone’s brain.
A woman’s coronavirus test went horribly south after she inexplicably began leaking cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from her nose, according to a case report.
“To our knowledge, this is the first report of an iatrogenic CSF leak after a nasal swab for COVID-19,” read the case study published Thursday in the journal JAMA Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery.
The spine-tingling situation began when the unnamed 40-something patient received a mandatory COVID-19 screening before an elective hernia operation. The test was administered via a nasal swab — a screening method recommended by the US’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Shortly thereafter, she began to experience a headache, neck stiffness, photosensitivity, vomiting and a “metallic taste” in her mouth.
Realizing something was awry, she reported to the hospital, where CT scans revealed a 1.8-centimeter pouch of CSF jutting down into the sinus cavity between a fissure in the bone. Known as an encephalocele, the condition was the result of her skull bones not closing completely, leaving a crack where CSF and brain tissue can accumulate into a sac-like formation, according to Children’s Wisconsin health system.