Spontaneous intracranial hypotension syndrome treated with a double epidural blood patch

Abstract

Spontaneous intracranial hypotension (SIH) is considered to be a very rare disease. It is characterised by an orthostatic headache in the absence of a past history of a trauma or a dural puncture. SIH is caused by a spontaneous spinal cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leakage demonstrated by neuroradiological studies in most of the patients. Conservative treatment usually includes bed rest, hydration and administration of caffeine or steroids. However, when the patient is refractory to the conservative treatment, an epidural blood patch (EBP) is performed. We report a 34-year-old woman with SIH and no neuroradiologically demonstrable clear point of CSF leakage, who was treated with a double EBP at two different levels (lumbar and thoracic) in the same procedure. The patient was successfully managed, and she was still asymptomatic at the 18 months follow-up. After review of literature, we observed that execution of a double EBP at the same time is not a common procedure for treatment of SIH. We consider that simultaneous use of two EBP could be useful as a novel treatment in those cases of SIH without demonstration of CSF leakage.