MRI Findings after Recent Image-Guided Lumbar Puncture: The Rate of Dural Enhancement and Subdural Collections

Abstract

Our study is the first to examine intracranial MR imaging after recent lumbar puncture and has 2 key findings: First, 5.2% of patients had small, bilateral subdural collections after recent lumbar puncture, suggesting that asymptomatic subdural collections after recent lumbar puncture are not atypical and do not require further work-up. Additionally, when MR imaging was performed within 2 days of lumbar puncture, none of our patients had diffuse dural enhancement. This argues against the commonly held practice of performing MR imaging before lumbar puncture to avoid findings of dural enhancement, and should not delay diagnostic work-up.