WORST NIGHTMARE

Patient Suffered Brain Fluid Leak After COVID-19 Nasal Swab: Study

After the test, she reported having watery mucus leaking from her nose, metallic taste, headaches, neck stiffness, and photophobia.

As if the COVID-19 nasal swab test wasn’t unpleasant enough, it was followed by a cerebrospinal fluid leak for one woman whose case was examined in a JAMA Network paper. The woman in her 40s was tested for coronavirus ahead of an elective hernia repair. Afterwards, she reported having unilateral rhinorrhea (clear, watery mucus flowing from the nose), metallic taste, headaches, neck stiffness, and photophobia. She was admitted to the hospital for surgery and lumbar drain management. Doctors reported that the swab test can cause trauma to existing conditions—which in the woman’s case was encephalocele, a condition in which bones of the skull don’t close fully. Experts emphasize that the health-care system properly train workers and the public on how to safely perform nasal swab testing.