A new radionuclide method for the diagnosis of posttraumatic cerebrospinal fistulas

Abstract

✓ The authors describe their technique for identifying and localizing posttraumatic cerebrospinal fluid fistulas. The method entails injection of radionuclide tracer into the subarachnoid frontal space with the patient in a sitting position followed by gamma camera scintigraphic recordings. The results in 308 patients are presented; these are compared with those of suboccipital radionuclide cisternography in 40 cases and metrizamide computerized tomography cisternography in nine cases. Transient complications occurred in only three patients.