Interpretation of Traumatic Lumbar Puncture

Abstract

The records of two cohorts of children who received lumbar puncture (LP) for suspected meningitis at Children’s Memorial Hospital, Chicago, IL, were reviewed retrospectively to determine the value of a ratio of observed to predicted (O:P) cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) white blood cells (WBC) after a traumatic LP in the differentiation of children with and without meningitis.

Keywords

• traumatic lumbar punctures
• cerebrospinal fluid
• white blood cells