COVID-19 nasal swab test cause brain fluid leak in US woman

A nasal swab test went horribly wrong in the US when a woman's brain lining got punctured and fluid started flowing, as the test was not done carefully and properly, a medical journal reported.

This has put the 40-year-old US woman at risk of life-threatening infection as the patient also had an undiagnosed rare condition.

Meanwhile, doctors have used this case as a warning to the healthcare workers across the globe.

According to Jarrett Walsh, senior author of the paper that appeared in JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, stated her case showed health care professionals should take care to follow testing protocols closely.

Walsh also added that people who suffer from substantial sinus and have been through skull-base surgery should exercise caution and request for oral testing instead of nasal swab.

"It underscores the necessity of adequate training of those performing the test and the need for vigilance after the test has been performed," ENT specialist Dennis Kraus of Lenox Hill Hospital in New York said.

The ENT specialist informed that the woman had appeared for a nasal test ahead of an elective hernia surgery, and later cited that fluid was coming out of one side of her nose.

He also said "She had been swabbed previously for another procedure, same side, no problems at all. She feels like maybe the second swab was not using the best technique, and that the entry was a little bit high," he said.

The woman also developed a headache which was followed by vomiting, neck stiffness and inability to bear light.

Previously, the woman had been treated for intracranial hypertension which means that the pressure from cerebrospinal fluid that protects and nourishes the brain was too high.

However, that resulted in the growing of an encephalocele, which is a defect at the base of the skull that causes the brain's lining to protrude into the nose, which resulted in a rupture.

ALSO WATCH: Get Set Global: Assamese in UK coping with the Pandemic