Expert Commentary: Role of Surgery for the Management of CSF Leaks

Abstract

Spontaneous intracranial hypotension (SIH) was described nearly 70 years ago, and for years it was essentially equated with post dural puncture headaches (PDPH) (1). The interest in this entity substantially increased after the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) abnormalities of this disorder were recognized in the early 1990s (2-6), and consequently many more patients were diagnosed than before and a far broader clinical spectrum of this disorder began to become apparent. It also came to be recognized that the overwhelming majority if not all cases of SIH result from spontaneous cerebrospinal (CSF) leaks and that the independent pathogenic parameter is loss of CSF volume (7).