Would you use a lumbar drain in a patient with spinal stroke from fibrocartilagenous embolism?

There are no clinical trials to suggest any benefit. Smaller studies - particularly case series have shown some benefit with the use of lumbar drain in the first 48 hours and keeping the pressure around 10 mmHg. These include mostly patients post a cardiovascular surgical procedure as a cause in the...

This is a very good question. In general, lumbar drains are really the only known therapy to help with spinal cord infarction outcomes. The idea being that you are improving flow to the spinal cord, which is compromised by an occluded artery. While I am not sure that there is clear data that indicat...