CSF Leak after decompression surgery

[brainteaser]

Hi, I had suboccipital craniotomy and a C1 laminectomy in mid-August. In the beginning of October I was diagnosed with a (late) post-surgery CSF leak. The fluid is pooling in the back of my head and the upper part of my neck. Has anyone else had this? Being it's so long after the surgery my surgeon thinks I may have a popped stitch internally.... He's trying to hold off on exploratory surgery, but I'm tentatively scheduled for Nov. 14th. My surgeon is hoping the leak will resolve itself by then, and I won't need surgery. He said if I'm still leaking after the surgery, I may need a shunt put in to drain the fluid. Just looking to see if anyone here has gone through this, and what to expect? Thanks

[vini]

hi sorry you have this complication the leak must be fixed I have posted some info on the csf leak board low volume csf can cause chiari its self, plus the risk of infection shunting the fluid away from the leak site ??????? the other option is what is called conservative treatment these leaks most of the time seal there self but can get harder to treat the longer they go on find out all you can below is a good place to start




http://www.righthealth.com/topic/Csf%20Leak?as=yhoo&ac=423&p=l

[Bowen]

Hi brainteaser,

Sorry, the private message didn't seem to send to you..so either you have 2 of the same one or none! So I'll paste what I said on here...

My brother recently had decopression surgery ( end of September this year) and it sounds like he has the exact same problem as you. He has been told he has a leak and has large pockets of what they have said is fluid in the back of his head. He is in a lot of pain and is sick constantly, can't keep any food down or sit up. He has been admitted this morning for the second time this week but we haven't heard anything yet as the hospital he's in doesn't have a neurology department.

I was just wondering if you did have any further surgery or if it did sort itself out? Or if there's any other information that you think might help?

Thanks :)

[Bowen]

Hi there,

I'm sorry if I've posted this same message about 20 times, I can't get it to work properly!

Hi brainteaser,

My brother recently had decopression surgery ( end of September this year) and it sounds like he has the exact same problem as you. He has been told he has a leak and has large pockets of what they have said is fluid in the back of his head. He is in a lot of pain and is sick constantly, can't keep any food down or sit up. He has been admitted this morning for the second time this week but we haven't heard anything yet as the hospital he's in doesn't have a neurology department.

I was just wondering if you did have any further surgery or if it did sort itself out? Or if there's any other information that you think might help?

Thanks :)

[Cindy Miller]

CSF leaks must be pretty common. I also had the same after decompression. One month after my 1st surgery, my surgeon went back in to repair the leak. 6 weeks after the 2nd surgery I was in terrible pain with hydrocephalus and had shunt surgery. My cousin's daughter had the same 3 surgeries. I wish they would have simply put in the shunt rather than trying to repair the leak. Now, over a year after surgery I have a syrinx that I didn't have before, evidently a result of trauma from surgery...

I hope your leak resolved itself and that you didn't need any further surgery! I wish you well.

[2dream4]

That is exactly what happened to me! I had Chiari decompression surgeryin June, developed a csf leak in the hospital, but it stopped. For six months fluid still showed up on my MRI but no problems. Then I developed a small bump, but thought nothing of it,. I woke up 6 weeks ago with a bump at the back of my neck the size of an orange and immediaty went back to my neurosurgeon who told me I hd a csf leak that required surgery. After surgery the Dr said there had been a broken suture, it was repaired, I spent 5 days in bed in the hospital with a lumbar drain, and went home after 6 days. Receovery was much easier, and am back to work after three weeks. I feel much better than I did even after my initial surgery. Starnge all this happened 7 months after surgery, but as Dr said there must have been a pre existing condition that casued this.