What are the dangers of lumbar puncture in children?

The physical health of children is something that every parent pays close attention to. Sometimes, a lumbar puncture may be required due to the baby's physical condition, and parents will feel very worried at this time. Because in the minds of parents, lumbar puncture in children will cause their IQ to drop. In fact, lumbar puncture is a very safe examination method. However, there are still certain hazards.

Lumbar puncture is a very safe examination method.

In fact, the human brain and spinal cord are suspended in a meningeal sac filled with cerebrospinal fluid. Therefore, when the brain or meninges are inflamed, it can only be diagnosed by collecting cerebrospinal fluid. Because the human spinal cord grows very slowly after birth, there is no spinal cord in the meningeal sac in the waist. Instead, a sac containing only cerebrospinal fluid is formed, called the terminal cistern. During a lumbar puncture, the puncture needle pierces the meningeal sac and enters the terminal cistern, releasing a small amount of cerebrospinal fluid for testing. The spinal cord is not touched, and it is not "spinal cord extraction" or "bone marrow extraction" as rumored among the people. Sometimes, medication can be injected into the spinal sac through a puncture needle to treat the disease.

Lumbar puncture is a common diagnostic technique in pediatrics.

Lumbar puncture is actually not as scary as people imagine. The reason why many parents think it is scary is that they do not have enough knowledge about lumbar puncture or even have some wrong understanding of it. So, let us now unveil the mystery of lumbar puncture.

Everyone is familiar with venous blood drawing and intravenous injection, and they are also accepting of it.

In fact, lumbar puncture is the same, it’s just a needle. Lumbar puncture is a procedure in which a very thin and long lumbar puncture needle is inserted through the skin and muscles into the lumbar intervertebral space, puncturing the dura mater to reach the subarachnoid space, and a small amount of cerebrospinal fluid is taken out for biochemical and cytological examination.

During human development, the length of the spinal cord and the spine are different. At this segment, there is no spinal cord, so parents do not have to worry about damaging the spinal cord during puncture.

Some parents believe that lumbar puncture is "drawing off the brain and spinal cord" and will make children stupid.

This understanding is also wrong. During a lumbar puncture, what is actually drawn is not the "brain and spinal cord" as people think, but "cerebrospinal fluid". The cerebrospinal fluid is just a colorless and transparent liquid that circulates on the surface of the brain and spinal cord and is in a state of constant renewal. 0.3 to 0.4 ml of cerebrospinal fluid is produced every minute. It can be seen that according to its production rate, when the doctor draws out 3 ml of cerebrospinal fluid during a lumbar puncture, it can be reproducible in about 10 minutes. Therefore, "drawing a little cerebrospinal fluid" will not harm the health of the child, nor will it damage the brain and produce sequelae.