[Pathogenesis of headache following lumbar puncture].

Results of clinical observations of 52 patients in whom diagnostic lumbar punctures were performed for various organic diseases of the nervous system are presented. The work was aimed at finding out, whether the rather frequent post-puncture headaches depend on the tone of the cerebral vessels and their blood content. For this purpose rheoencephalography was used. An analysis of the rheoencephalograms recorded before and after the lumbar punctures in 15 patients with and in 35 patients without the post-puncture headaches showed that the headaches did not depend on the initial tone of the cerebral vessels and their blood content. Hence, these headaches are not due to vasomotor disturbances. Of decisive importance in their pathogenesis is, probably, intracranial fluid hypotension.