"Man’s Runny Nose Was Actually Leaking Brain Fluid" - Dr. Max Gomez
Imagine that for years you’d been told that your runny nose was due to allergies. Then you find out that it’s your brain that’s leaking. Gregory Phillphots doctors in North Carolina had told him the clear fluid coming out of one nostril was caused by allergies. When the leak got really bad last Thanksgiving, Phillphots did some research and found his way to Alfred Iloreta, MD, assistant professor of otolaryngology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who diagnosed his problem as a leak of cerebrospinal fluid. The leak may have been caused by some head trauma many years ago. “Cerbrospinal fluid bathes the brain and spinal cord, nourishes and protects the brain,” Dr. Iloreta said. Dr. Iloreta proposed an innovative approach to fixing the leak. He would go through Phillphots’ nose to the site of the leak; using special scopes and a kind of GPS navigation system. “We used his own tissue as a graft to patch the hole where the fluid was leaking from,” he added. Gregory’s surgery was just nine days ago. Dr. Iloreta says a brain leak can sometimes be confused for allergies, but the fact that it was just one nostril and all the antibiotics and antihistamines didn’t work would be a reason to suspect a bigger problem.
- Aflred Marc Iloreta, MD, Assistant Professor, Otolaryngology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai