Best BETs from the Manchester Royal Infirmary. BET 4: does leg position alter cerebrospinal fluid opening pressure during lumbar puncture?

A short-cut review was carried out to determine whether cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) opening pressure is significantly affected by the patient's leg position during the procedure. A total of 1410 papers was found using the reported search, of which five were considered relevant to the three-part question. The author, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes, results and study weaknesses are shown in table 3. It is concluded that alternative leg positions may affect the opening pressure by a small margin but this is unlikely to be of clinical significance.