Reasons To Do Lumbar Puncture For Leukemia

Lumbar puncture is one of the most important tools for the diagnosis and prevention of central nervous system leukemia.

　　CNS leukemia is a leukemic pathological change that occurs when leukemic cells proliferate in the central nervous system and it causes neurological and psychiatric abnormalities in patients. It is part of the systemic lesions of leukemia, and most occur in the relapsed or late stages of leukemia. The normal chemotherapeutic drugs do not easily cross the blood-brain barrier into the cerebrospinal fluid to kill the leukemic cells hidden in the central nervous system. These leukemia cells keep proliferating, causing a series of clinical symptoms and endangering the patient's life, so they should be prevented and treated early.

　　On one hand, lumbar puncture can directly test the patient's cerebrospinal fluid pressure, and the biochemical and routine cerebrospinal fluid and smear can search for leukemia cells in the cerebrospinal fluid to find out whether the patient has CNS leukemia; on the other hand, it can also inject chemotherapeutic drugs intrathecally at the same time to increase the concentration of drugs in the cerebrospinal fluid and play a role in preventing the occurrence of CNS leukemia.

　　Once a patient is diagnosed with CNS leukemia, he or she should undergo regular lumbar puncture and intrathecal injection of chemotherapeutic drugs under the guidance of a specialist to prevent life-threatening CNS complications.