General Category > AN Issues

CSF leaks?

(1/3) > >>

Peggy:
Hi,
once again I'm reading (probably too much) and it seems to me that most of the time with surgery people develope a CSF leak,  what are the chances of that happening and if it does how is treated, with another surgery????  you've got to be kidding me,  during surgery aren't there things that doctors can do to prevent that from happening also, it can happen weeks after surgery,  is there something that I could do to prevent it?  Also, on my MRI report is said " there are several small scattered foci of hyperintese signal in the white matter tracts bilaterally consistent with chronic small vessel white matter ischemic disease  if I looked it up correctly, isn't this heart disease?  does anyone know?????  Is is over yet????

Peggy

Betsy:
Hi Peggy,

Before I decided not to have surgery, I questioned my doctors on the topic of csf leaks.  Both Dr Eisenberg (AN guru from the University of Maryland Medical Center) and the two neurosurgeons I've seen at Geisinger have assured me that it's a rare complication (about 5% according to my notes) and they treat it by installing a shunt.  The concern with csf leaks of course is meningitis, which is why it needs to be addressed quickly.  However, Dr E said he had a patient that couldn't get to the hospital for 5 days after her csf leak started, and she was fine.  Some of the folks on this forum have had csf leaks, and they can tell you first hand what it's like and whether or not a particular surgical approach is more likely to cause csf leaks.

Check with your doctor about the MRI report.  I've learned that the doctor who reads the MRI dictates his or her findings, and it's typed up by a medical transcriptionist.  The transcriptionist got it wrong on my first MRI, and said my AN was in my chest!  Now I google everything and make lists of questions for the doctors.  There's no such thing as reading too much!

Betsy

Jim Scott:
Hi, Peggy:

While I can't really offer any usable information regarding the 'chronic small vessel white matter ischemic disease' that was noted on your MRI report, which I hope was an error, I can tell you that CSF leaks are not necessarily a big problem with AN surgery.  However, to be totally honest, I don't know the actual statistics, so I could be mistaken.  It wouldn't be the first time.

For many years, body fat (your own) was the substance of choice to fill the space the surgeon removes from your skull when performing the microsurgery on your AN but more recently, many surgeons have adopted the use of titanium mesh to fill that space.  My neurosurgeon used it on me. He claimed he's used the mesh instead of body fat for 'years'.  He also stated that he hasn't had a CSF leak for many years, either.  I didn't.  This is something that you have to discuss with your surgeon to get the specifics but I expect that surgeons either use body fat as 'filler' or the titanium mesh and don't alternate one for the other. For what it's worth, I prefer the titanium mesh. 

Jim

sgerrard:
Ischemia just means "reduced blood supply", not heart disease.

After I was diagnosed, I had an additional test of the hearing nerve brain stem response, which showed good wave forms, better than expected. The lab report suggested that some of my hearing loss might be due to reduced blood flow to the cochlea, or "cochlear ischemia."

My MRI report also noted "one or two focal areas of white matter hyperintensity", later summarized as "minimal nonspecific white matter changes."

It is the job of the head and neck radiologist writing the MRI report to note everything, for the record. I am pretty sure that unless they start increasing in number or size on follow up MRIs, or something like that, they are not cause for concern.

It can sure drive you nuts, though...

Steve

zjane:
I had Translab on 6/27 for my 2.3 cm right side AN.  They were ready to release me on 6/30 and that very afternoon I had a CSF leak.  I was put on pressure dressing, had additional stitiches. I was release on 7/3 morning and went back to the hospital in the afternoon because I was leaking again.  This time I had a drain put in thru the spine and was in the hospital for 3 more days.  Since I got home I've been fine.  I was told CSF happens to 6% of ppl have surgery and then 25% of which had to be drained and the associate told me in the 8 years of him working with the surgeon he'd only seen 1 person put back in the OR.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page