Author(s)

John Narron¹, Mohamed Farrag¹, Elbert Mets², Saif Mahmoud¹, Khaled Sedeek¹

¹Hershey Medical Center, Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, PA, USA.
²Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.

We report a case of a patient in remission of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) with severe positional headaches that required an epidural blood patch (EBP) despite the higher risks of infection and introduction of blast cells to the epidural space. A 43-year-old male with a history of ALL presented with persistent positional headache after multiple intrathecal punctures. Despite initial improvement with medical treatment and bed rest, severe positional headache [consistent with post-dural puncture headache] constantly agonized the patient. EBP was performed after discussion of all of the medical teams involved. Following the procedure, the patient experienced immediate pain relief. EBP is very effective in the management of post-dural puncture headache (PDPH). Still there is risk of introducing infectious and/or malignant cells into the central nervous system. Alternatively, there are agents available that could be employed other than a patient’s own blood.

Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, Intrathecal Punctures, CSF Leakage, Positional Headaches Epidural Blood Patch, Autologous Blood

Narron, J. , Farrag, M. , Mets, E. , Mahmoud, S. and Sedeek, K. (2017) Management of Post-Dural Puncture Headache Using Autologous Epidural Blood Patch in a Patient with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Open Journal of Anesthesiology, 7, 83-87. doi: 10.4236/ojanes.2017.74008.