Woman’s Nose Leaks Brain Fluid For Four Months After Doctors Misdiagnose Rare Condition

Aundrea Aragon’s nose leaked brain fluid for four months, a condition her doctor’s originally called allergies. According to Aragon, when her nose wasn’t dripping out fluid, it was “pouring out of my nose.”

The 35-year-old mother explains to ABC News:

“If I looked down or bent over, it would literally pore out of the left side of my nose. I had no control at all.”

While doctors initially dismissed the mother’s concerns, it was eventually discovered that her brain was leaking cerebrospinal fluid through two cracks in the back of her sphenoid sinus.

Had the condition went untreated for much longer, Aundrea could have suffered from meningitis, fallen into a coma, or quite possibly died.

Approximately 1 in 200,000 patients suffer from the spinal leak, which requires surgery to repair.

According to doctors, the loss of fluid isn’t the problem since we are always making more brain fluid; however, it can be fatal because the nose is dirty and the brain is clean. As particles from the nose enter the brain, diseases can spread and directly infect the brain.

To fix the problem, surgeons used an endoscopic method to access the sinus passageways and fix two small sinus cracks. Surgeons grafted skin over the leaky spots, which stopped the problem. Before beginning the procedure, surgeons injected dye into Aragon’s spinal fluid to find the location of the leak.

Aundrea was lucky to have modern medicine on her side. By using an endoscopic procedure, doctors were able to avoid lifting her frontal lobes and then patching the leak from the belly of the brain.