RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 A rare cause of postpartum headache
JF BMJ Case Reports
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
SP bcr-2017-223048
DO 10.1136/bcr-2017-223048
VO 2018
A1 Nayantara Bijral
A1 Imran Qureshi
A1 Aisha Hameed
YR 2018
UL http://casereports.bmj.com/content/2018/bcr-2017-223048.abstract
AB Postpartum women can develop headache, and their assessment requires a thorough and multidisciplinary approach. If the headache is unresponsive to treatment and accompanied by neurological deficit, neuroimaging needs to be undertaken to rule out other life-threatening causes.1 We present a case of 35-year-old woman with pre-eclampsia and diet-controlled gestational diabetes mellitus, who had normal vaginal delivery at 40 weeks. She had an epidural analgesia for pain relief during labour, but had inadvertent dural puncture during the procedure and developed headache 24 hours after delivery. The headache was managed conservatively and she was discharged home, but was readmitted 8 days later with worsening headache. The headache was postural on admission but became continuous, developed neurological symptoms in the form of ataxic hemiparesis and convulsions. After neuroimaging, she was found to have cerebral venous sinus thrombosis. She was commenced on anticoagulants and anticonvulsants and made a complete recovery.