Medical experts say that, while doing Pilates, the woman most likely suffered a tear in the lining of her spinal cord

Feb 14, 2015 09:03 GMT  ·  By

Not long ago, medical experts at King's College Hospital in the UK got to treat a woman who, following a rather intense pilates workout, found herself leaking spinal fluid and suffering terrible headaches as a result.

The 42-year-old woman, whose name was not disclosed, started feeling better and was discharged from hospital after being administered anti-inflammatory drugs and spending a few days in bed.

How the woman started leaking spinal fluid

In a paper in the Journal of Medical Case Reports, the King's College Hospital specialists who handled this case detail that the liquid the 42-year-old woman began leaking after Pilates is actually known as cerebrospinal fluid.

This is because it flows not just between the spinal cord and its outer lining, identified as the dura, but also between the brain and its outer covering. They go on to explain that this liquid serves to protect the central nervous system and remove metabolic waste.

It is believed that, while doing Pilates, the woman somehow suffered a tear in the outer covering protecting the neck part of her spinal cord. Hence the fact that the scans she was subjected to showed pockets of fluid in this part of her body.

Because of the fluid leaking from her spinal cord, the patient experienced severe headaches and only felt somewhat better when resting in bed. Apparently, the woman got her first headache about an hour after the Pilates class during which she injured her spinal cord.

Interestingly enough, the 42-year-old patient told doctors that, while exercising, she felt something pop inside her neck. The thing is that, because there was no obvious sign of injury, she saw no reason not to simply ignore this odd occurrence, Live Science reports.

As mentioned, the woman was treated with anti-inflammatory drugs and told to just lie in bed for a while to give the dura covering her spinal cord a chance to recover. The 42-year-old spend about 2 weeks in hospital before finally being discharged.

Although they subjected her to a CT scan and an MRI scan, specialists never managed to identify the exact location of the tear that caused the leak. All they know is that it was Pilates exercises that led to this rather peculiar incident.

Such leaks are quite common, doctors say

The King's College Hospital medical experts who treated this woman explain that, contrary to what some might assume, cerebrospinal fluid leaks are not exactly few and far between. On the contrary, it appears that such incidents are quite common.

Not at all surprisingly, it is people involved in a car crash or some other accident that are most likely to damage the dura protecting their nervous system and end up leaking cerebrospinal fluid. Tumors or nose surgeries can also trigger cerebrospinal fluid leaks.