Abstract
A survey of lumbar punctures performed in adults in a district general hospital over a two year period was carried out. As well as being used for conventional, specific indications, lumbar puncture was often employed as a screening investigation in undiagnosed neurological illness. Although this was not inappropriate in patients with meningeal symptoms and signs, or patients with disordered consciousness, lumbar puncture was also used in patients with focal neurological signs. Although the dangers of lumbar puncture in these latter patients, and the fact that it is unlikely to yield information unobtainable by other investigations have been stated by many authorities, almost 20% of patients fell into this group. This suggests that these points require further emphasis.
Full text
PDF
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Duffy G. P. Lumbar puncture in spontaneous subarachnoid haemorrhage. Br Med J (Clin Res Ed) 1982 Oct 23;285(6349):1163–1164. doi: 10.1136/bmj.285.6349.1163. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Duffy G. P. Lumbar puncture in the presence of raised intracranial pressure. Br Med J. 1969 Feb 15;1(5641):407–409. doi: 10.1136/bmj.1.5641.407. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Findlay G. F. Computer-assisted (axial) tomography in the management of subarachnoid haemorrhage. Surg Neurol. 1980 Feb;13(2):125–128. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Marton K. I., Vender M. I. The lumbar puncture. Patterns of use in clinical practice. Med Decis Making. 1981;1(4):331–344. doi: 10.1177/0272989X8100100404. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Teddy P. J., Briggs M., Adams C. B. Lumbar puncture in spontaneous subarachnoid hemorrhage. Br Med J (Clin Res Ed) 1983 Jan 8;286(6359):143–143. doi: 10.1136/bmj.286.6359.143. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]