New device can stop accidental cerebrospinal fluid leaks

Tuesday February 9th 2021

A device that can quickly rectify accidental cerebrospinal fluid leaks during an epidural is to be tested on humans, following successful animal tests.

Spanish researcher Carlos García Victoria, of the Fisabio foundation, has patented the design after working with several centres and universities to perfect it.

Writing in Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine, the research team say the device can be applied immediately after the accidental puncture of the dura mater has been detected, simply sealing the cerebrospinal fluid leakage.

It means that headaches that typically occur following an accidental puncture – and can last for several days, or even weeks, extending hospital stays – would be avoided.

The device was successfully validated in sheep at the Veterinary Clinical Hospital’s Department of Medicine and Animal Surgery of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and the Clinical Veterinary Hospital of the CEU Cardenal Herrera University (CEU UCH).

It can now go on to be tested in humans.

José Ignacio Redondo, anaesthesiology lecturer from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the CEU UCH. Said: “The design of this animal model has made it possible to successfully validate the efficiency of the device. This is the first necessary step for its use to be authorised on humans.”

He added that the carried out by a multidisciplinary human and veterinarian medicine team “is a good example of the collaboration possibilities that professionals of one field and another have to achieve progress in anaesthesiology that benefit both people and animals.”

Validation of a bioabsorbable device that seals perforations after Tuohy needle dural puncture in an ovine model. Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine 8 February 2021.

Tags: Childbirth and Pregnancy | Europe | Pain Relief | Women's Health & Gynaecology

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