Shortly after a woman from Iowa took a self-swab COVID-19 test, she began developing adverse symptoms and fluid began leaking from her nose. The fluid was later identified by doctors on the case as cerebrospinal fluid, found in the protective lining around the brain and the spine.
The case is the first of its kind, to the knowledge of the doctors who documented it in the medical journal JAMA Otolaryngol Head & Neck Surgery, who call on the general health care system to properly train clinicians and even the general public to perform the tests.
The woman, 40, had been asked to take a self-swab COVID-19 test before undergoing a hernia operation. Shortly after taking the test, the fluid began leaking from her nose and she developed a headache and started vomiting.
It was later understood that the woman had a preexisting condition, and a series of unlikely events led to the fluid leaking.
It was discovered that the woman had been treated for intracranial hypertension. "She had a pre-existing defect in the base of her skull, the bone at the top of the nose, and a sac of brain tissue had protruded out into the nasal cavity," explained University of East Anglia Prof. Carl Philpott, who reviewed the medical study.