Four days after my first discectomy (8-07) at L-5/S-1, I sprung a CSF leak. My neurosurgeon told me he could not find a piece of renegade disc that had torn free and was lost in my back somewhere. He just discharged me and sent me home with a bunch of meds. After CSF leak, I waited 2 days in hospital for surgery to fix it. He used sugical glue (which eventually disolves) and packing (which never disolves and is now on my crushed nerve). He did find and remove lost disc segment and more disc at L-5/S-1. It crushed my nerve, which is where he found it. He says I have about a tenth of a disc left. Had several MRI's post-surg which show my disc is still bulging and pressing on my thecal sac causing me severe lower back pain and is making my sciatica to my right leg/foot much worse. I also have trouble walking and have almost fallen on my face a few times. On my last visit to the pain clinic the doctor there scheduled an epidural with flouroscopy under conscious sedation for next Tuesday. He said he will enter much lower through the caudal space to avoid my scar tissue. My neurosurgeon said I could not have any more epidurals after a CSF leak. I don't totally trust him as he really screwed up my surgeries. Both are older doc's that have been around for a while. I don't know who to believe and am afraid. I have been through enough (Botched surgery, EMG's, Myelogram's, MRI's, severe pain, and horrible treatment at the hospital). Does anyone know about this???? Help! The clock is ticking.

i'm sorry that i didn't see this while you were asking. i'm wondering if you got the epidural. I think it's probably wise of the surgeon to have you steer clear of getting one while you have an active CSF leak. I'm not a doc, just someone who also had a leak. You might find a good pain anesthesiologist to help you figure it out. But if you're still considering an epidural, I'd recommend at a minimum talking with a doctor who gives these spinal injections all the time. I had a procedure called a "blood pacth" repeated twice after my spinal leak. Apparently that is supposed to work well but did not in my case. But your leak was caused by surgery and perhaps that's why they had to go in and fix it. It sounds like you have 2 dsitinct things going on. Is your leak fixed now? Did you stop leaking? That glue procedure is supposed to work well.

be well. and post when again you can.