The Mayo clinic has found a new use for Botox: treating patients suffering from low cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) headaches.
Low CSF pressure headaches are caused by an internal spinal fluid leak. Pain caused by low CSF pressure headaches can range from mild to severe and can be disabling. Low CSF pressure headaches are typically caused by a lumbar puncture. The pain is caused as fluid leaks out and the brain sags-previously, the only relief for many patients has been lying down.
The Mayo Clinic study was presented in March at the American Academy of Neurology meeting in Hawaii and concerned a patient that had been suffering from low CSF headaches for 25 years-for most of that time she had only been able to relieve her pain by lying prone. The patient was given regular Botox injections every three months that allowed her to be able to live her regular life.
"We had been using Botox for several years for treatment of migraine and had been successful in many patients. And because we really didn't have anything else to offer her, we gave her the Botox," says Dr. Michael Cutrer, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and the report's co-author. "To everybody's surprise she made a remarkable improvement." The intensity of the patient's headaches dropped from 8 out of 10 on a visual pain index to 3 out of 10.
CONTRIBUTE TO THIS STORY
