d.: Well, Cal.E. and I got our wires crossed yesterday, since I was in Port Author and she had to fill in for Ralph, who’s touring as the bass player and backup vocalist for Beauty and the Glowfish. Since Cal.E. is thinking about coaching football, I wanted her to see the research I did in one of my classes, but I can’t get her to answer her phone, and her text function is turned off as well. I’ll just post this information here, so she and the rest of y’all can read it.
One use for a spinal tap is to rule out normal pressure hydrocephalus in patients who are experiencing symptoms of this condition. According to UConn Health, this is a procedure that extracts a large volume of cerebral spinal fluid. It many help relieve the symptoms of this rare condition (less than three percent of the total world population that is over 65 and .003% of those under the age of seventy have this condition, according to Cleveland Clinic (2022). A spinal tap will relieve the symptoms of the condition, but only for seven days or less. The only cure for this condition is to implant a shunt in the patient’s head to drain off the excess cerebrospinal fluid. The primary cause for NPH in adults younger than sixty-five is repeated head trauma.
Concussions are the most common head trauma suffered, and athletes suffer more head trauma than the average person. In the last twenty years, many rules have been added to the game of American Football to reduce head trauma, but the players now are bigger, faster, and stronger, and many head injuries still occur . A three-hundred-pound man running at twenty miles per hour (as some can do for a short period of time) would produce 60,000 pounds of pressure. If that is apply to one’s head, that could bring about dire consequences, about the same as a head-on car collision when the occupant of the car isn’t wearing any restraints at the same speed.
REFERENCES
Cleveland Clinic (2022). Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH).
hydrocephalus-nph. Recalled 2/18/2024.