Man had a runny nose for six years before doctors discovered his brain was leaking

Head injuries are tricky. Indeed, when you hit your head, you can feel like nothing is wrong, and go on about your life. However, some injuries take a while to manifest themselves, and they can put your life in actual danger. One man from Syria learned this lesson the hard way. Here's what happened to him.

He had a hole in his skull

A 20-year-old man from Syria suffered from a runny nose, headaches and seizures for six years before he finally learned the reason for his ailment. The cold-like symptoms started when he got involved in a car accident when he was fourteen. He sustained a head injury, but the young man refused to seek treatment at the time. He took him another six years to finally go see a doctor to find out what was wrong with him, and one can assume he was rather disappointed by the results.

The young man was admitted into the intensive care unit, and he underwent several exams, including an MRI of his brain. It revealed a fracture in his skull, through which parts of his brain were coming out.

What is encephalocele?

After running some tests on the patient's head, doctors diagnosed him with encephalocele, a condition where the brain is 'poking out' through a crack in the skull, meaning some brain matter can leak out through the nose, for example. While the condition is usually a rare birth defect, which affects about 375 babies every year in the whole world, it can also be caused by a head injury. In some rare cases, it can lead to leaking brain and spine fluid called CSF, which was the case for the young Syrian.

Losing CSF can damage the blood supply to the brain, and other vital organs, such as the heart. The only way to treat encephalocele is through complex brain surgery.

The patient responded well to the surgery, and he was allowed to go home only two days later. After several follow-up appointments with his surgeon, the young man was healed, and his cold-like symptoms stopped completely.

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Source used:

Daily Mail: Man, 20, with a constant runny nose finds out his brain was poking out and 'leaking'