Help for Spinal Headaches: All About Epidural Blood Patches

Many patients who get a spinal tap or post-dural puncture experience a spinal headache afterward. 

Also known as an epidural headache or a low-pressure headache, this kind of head pain can be intense, and not everyone responds to conservative treatment methods or can withstand how long it takes for the pain to go away on its own.

At CHOICE Pain & Rehabilitation Center, with multiple locations in Maryland and Delaware, our providers offer an epidural blood patch to resolve spinal headaches quickly and safely.

Spinal headaches

This intensely painful headache typically comes on when the level of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), the fluid around your brain, decreases. 

Some people can experience lowered amounts of CSF due to a cyst or a tear in the protective lining around the spinal cord. However, most people with spinal headaches have them due to CSF leakage after a spinal tap.

Spinal taps 

A spinal tap is a lumbar (lower back) puncture to access CFS around the spine. It can help diagnose conditions like infections, such as meningitis or encephalitis, or to measure intracranial pressure. 

It can also test for bleeding in the brain or certain cancers or to administer medications or anesthesia.

Most people who suffer spinal headaches do so within 2-3 days of their spinal tap. In rare cases, spinal headaches can show up weeks or months after a lumbar puncture. Around 10%-40% of people who get spinal taps experience spinal headaches.

Symptoms 

The most common symptoms of a spinal headache include:

• A throbbing pain at the front or back of your head that gets worse over time
• Head pain that gets better when you lie down but worse when you sit or stand
• Head pain that intensifies suddenly when you sneeze, cough, or strain yourself 

Head pain may be joined by other symptoms, such as:

• Nausea
• Dizziness
• Neck stiffness or pain 
• Sensitivity to light
• Visual disturbances

More rare symptoms include hearing loss, tinnitus, and tingling or numbness in the arms.

Many people who get spinal headaches suffer for a few hours or a couple of days. However, some patients find their headache and additional symptoms last up to 10 days, at which case intervention may be needed beyond painkillers and anti-nausea medications. 

Epidural blood patches

An epidural blood patch involves injecting your blood into the epidural space near the spinal column. We can administer it through the original dural puncture site or into the space directly above or below the original site.

We take a sterile draw of your blood and inject it into the epidural space. That helps seal off the puncture site so no more CSF can leak, letting the pressure around your brain rebalance. That usually relieves spinal headache pain within a few hours or a day.

If you’ve recently had a spinal tap and experience a particularly intense and unrelenting headache that doesn’t respond to oral medication, caffeine, or sitting upright, you may have a spinal headache. You could benefit from an epidural blood patch.

To learn more, schedule an appointment at CHOICE Pain & Rehabilitation Center today by calling us at 240-786-1001 or requesting an appointment online.