Nose Leaking Brain Fluid: Arizona Man Thought Of Just Runny Nose
A nose leaking turned out to be not just a simple runny nose but a brain fluid dripping. Take this case of Joe Nagy of Phoenix, Arizona who suffered with a chronic runny nose for a year and a half and could not determine the cause.
As reported by KSAZ Fox 10 news, Nagy first noticed the symptoms once or twice a week when he sat up in bed. He described it, “Brooop! This clear liquid dribbled out of my nose like, just like tears out of your eyes. I go, ‘What in the? What is this?'” Soon his nose ran all the time. Originally he thought it was caused by seasonal allergies, but the symptoms persisted year round, so he headed to a specialist for tests. The results showed that Nagy’s problem was not a simple runny nose, but instead leaking brain fluid from a hole in the membrane surrounding the brain. Neurosurgeon Dr. Peter Nakaji of the Barrow Neurological Institute said, “This is one of the more common conditions to be missed for a long time because so many people have runny noses.” This type of leak can stem from a past head injury, or complications of a spinal tap or surgery.
After the cause of Joe’s runny nose was identified, he was ready for brain surgery to fix the leak. But he came down with a near-deadly case of meningitis when his brain fluid became infected. Once that infection was treated and under control, Dr. Nakaji conducted the surgery. The surgeon’s first task was finding the leak. “These leaks can be very very tiny, um a little bit like a puncture on a bicycle tire, that sometimes you have trouble even finding where it is,” said Nakaji. The doctor eventually did find the leak and he proceeded with the incredible surgery. Dr. Nakaji explains, “Nowadays we do quite a bit of surgery on the brain and base of brain through the nose. We never have to cut up into the brain. We’re getting a needle up into the space to check it out, and then to put a little bit of glue. This is just a bit of cartilage from the nose that we can get to repair over it and then the body will seal it up.”
Just days after the surgery, the gauze was removed from Joe’s nose. But the patient was still skeptical that his problem would be gone and said, “I was waiting for the dribble. This leaking, cause I was so used to it every day. I got my hankie. Nothing. It’s never come back.” Doctors do advise that if you have a runny nose first consult an allergist or an ear, nose and throat specialist. Joe’s case is quite different from allergy symptoms in that brain fluid is very clear.
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