Spinal Fluid Leaks

This support community connects patients, loved ones and caregivers affected by spinal cerebrospinal fluid (csf) leaks for informational and social support

The spinal csf leak foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit health foundation focused on raising awareness, providing education, and funding research for spinal csf leaks The content on the spinal csf leak foundation website is provided for. These are currently the only three places in the us whose primary clinical focus is diagnosing and treating spinal csf leaks Duke spinal csf leak team duke university medical center, durham, nc. Nasal fluid while people with iih and cranial (skull base) csf leaks do often leak csf from their nose, it's actually less commonly known that at least 12% of people with spinal csf leaks also leak a watery fluid from their nose that is indistinguishable from csf without lab testing but isn't csf. This underlying high pressure can also cause a spinal leak as the body tries to protect the brain from dangerous pressure

While cranial leaks do not generally cause headaches extended periods of high pressure will present with headaches and often visual issues. Yes, that link about flying with a csf leak is for cranial csf leaks Unfortunately most drs want to just do spiral tap to measure pressure which isn't accurate and can cause leaks If you're going to potentially do a procedure that can cause a leak you should be able to have a good benefit from it. For the duration of my csf leak symptoms (approx 1 year), consuming alcohol in low to moderate quantities has worked surprisingly well as a means of

If you had a cranial csf leak, and if it was going to drain into your eyes, it would only leak on one side and it would probably continue leaking when you're upright

But spontaneous intracranial hypotension (sih) from spinal csf leaks have been known to trigger a clear nasal fluid that looks like csf but contains none It's believed that this is actually lacrimal fluid/tears. Then there are cysts and venous fistulas with their own set of symptoms depending if leaking outside or between cysts squeezing out csf fluid from spinal cord when bending and twisting, etc, etc Caffeine has always been my go to medication for headaches or migranes even before csf leak eureka. When you said a spontaneous csf leak was suspected, do you mean spinal or cranial Csf leaks in the head (cranial csf leaks) and csf leaks along the spine (spinal csf leaks) are distinct disorders

Symptoms, causes, complications, testing, and treatments are entirely different.