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A man’s constantly runny nose following a COVID-19 test was not caused by allergies as he suspected, but rather by cerebrospinal fluid leaking from his brain, according to a new one report.
The man, who lives in the Czech Republic, underwent a COVID-19 nasal swab test in March 2020 after coming into contact with a person infected with COVID-19, according to the report published Thursday, September 9 in the newspaper. JAMA Otorhinolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery. The man’s test was negative, but later he got a runny nose just from his right nostril. This symptom, which the patient mistakenly believed to be due to allergies, lasted for months before going to see a doctor in December 2020.
A CT scan of his skull showed the man had an injury to the cribriform plaque, a spongy bone that separates the nose and the brain. She was diagnosed with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leakage, a rare but serious condition in which the clear fluid that surrounds the brain and the spinal cord leaks through a defect in the skull and through the nose, according to Johns Hopkins University. Typically, the leak occurs on only one side of the nose, depending on the Cleveland Clinic.
CSF leaks are dangerous because they can increase the risk of meningitis, which is an infection of the membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord. Still, patients can leak CSF for years before developing serious problems, Previously reported live science.
Related: 10 things you didn’t know about the brain
CSF leaks can have many causes, including head trauma or brain or sinus surgery. In this case, the man’s CSF leak was likely an extremely rare complication caused by his March 2020 COVID-19 test. The man had received a nasopharyngeal COVID-19 test, in which a healthcare professional takes a sample. sample deep in the nose, where the nasal cavity meets the upper part of the throat, depending on the Food and drug administration. Such tests are known to be uncomfortable, and they have been called “brain scrapers”. However, while these tests may seem strange and lead to symptoms such as watery eyes, they shouldn’t be painful, according to the doctor. Virginia Department of Health.
Additionally, although the nasopharyngeal test was the primary testing method used at the start of the pandemic, these tests have become less common following the development of other tests capable of detecting COVID-19 using samples taken. on the anterior part of the nose, according to The conversation.
It is also important to note that only a handful of cases of CSF leaks linked to COVID-19 tests have been reported worldwide since the start of the pandemic, out of the hundreds of millions of COVID-19 tests performed. In the Czech Republic, 25 million COVID-19 tests were performed between March 2020 and May 2021, according to the JAMA report. (In the United States, more than 539 million tests have been performed since the start of the pandemic, according to data from the Centers for Disaster Control and Prevention.)
Two previously reported cases of CSF leaks linked to COVID-19 testing involved people with existing defects at the base of the skull, which increased the risk of this complication, according to the report. In one of those cases, described in the April 2021 issue of Journal of Clinical Neuroscience, the authors believe the nasal swab was also “inserted at an incorrect angle.”
The new report appears to be the first case of a CSF leak after a COVID-19 test in which the patient did not have a pre-existing head defect. A CT scan performed on the man in 2011 showed no defects, according to the JAMA report.
The man needed surgery to close the cribriform plaque lesion, as well as a prescription for antibiotics to prevent infection. The man recovered well without complications from his operation, but at a follow-up appointment three weeks later, he said he couldn’t smell out of his right nostril, according to the report.
Originally posted on Live Science.
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