Spinal tap complications?

[SciaticaBetty]

Hello and thanks to all whom respond. On 11/16/2007 I had a lumbar puncture done to try a get a definite diagnosis of M.S.
Within 2 days after the procedure I developed a severe headache and lower back pain. Then about 10 days after I ended up in the hospital with above symptoms plus had pain shooting down my sciatic nerve on my left buttock and leg. Both legs were so weak I was barely able to walk. I had a triple MRI and I had new lesions form in the white matter consistent with M.S. and also my L 4/5 disc was shown protruding. Right after the LP was done I also had 2 grand-mal seizures and the first resulted in having incontinence for almost 2 days. I’m now in chronic pain 24/7 and both my legs have problems as well as severe lower back pain and sciatic pain. I DID NOT have this pain prior to the LP.
My question is, can an LP cause a disc to protrude or be injured? The Neuro didn’t check my back before doing the LP and in fact he hit the sciatic nerve the first go around before he got it right the second time. Also can an LP cause chronic sciatic pain? I cannot seem to get a straight answer from any of the doctors who also work at the same hospital where this Neuro is a Hospitalist.  It’s been a month now since the LP and I can’t get any help from local doctors. Please help me for I’m in a lot of pain!

[Abhijeet Deshmukh, MD]

Hello.

Sciatic pain can be caused by LP. But it is highly unlikely that LP would cause a disk protrusion.

Regards

[SciaticaBetty]

Thank you for your quick response. I went to my PCP today and along with the above, I was having severe problems with the bowels and bladder. I told him that I can't go to the bathroom despite taking both upper and lower laxatives for over 6 days now. My bladder is very irritated and I had another episode of losing control on that. The pain in my lower back is like it's being stung over and over by bee's and I'm having numbness and tingling as well as the sciatic pain in both legs. Both legs are very weak. Things seem to be changing and the best I got was a bottle of Magnesium Citrate. My PCP, who's a FNP read over the MRI report again and said there was a nerve compression going on. He said he did have concerns over the weakness that the nerve being compressed could be some kind of rare disorder and the name he used escapes me. He said if that gets worse then I may wind up needing surgery to take the pressure off. Now this bothers me for how long should I wait for things to get worse before something that drastic will be done? I was told I could wind up paralyzed if the compression gets to great. So I get told all of this and sent home with a laxative. Now I'm getting really worried as I don't know what more signs to be aware of to avoid being paralyzed. I'm looking for answers from Neuros about this as it does involve the nerves. Thank you for your answers.